A story at 2:48 AM
by xXFissshBonesssXx
Summary: Hiruma wakes up to something unusual. Rating may go up in later chapters. Hiruma/Sena
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 1

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers: **None

**A/N:** My first ES21 piece. May be revised later. Please treat me kindly.

**Chapter 1**

The morning began, for Yoichi Hiruma, as most mornings begin.

The bleariness of a dream blurs off into a partially-lit reality as the body reacts to sunlight.

The cool feel of the sheets against skin.

The momentary grogginess of dreams still clutching to your consciousness.

Everything was exactly as it always was. Even Hiruma's reaction to being woken up by the gentle early rays that managed a dim glow through his shut window shades.

"Haaaa.... fuckin' sun."

Yes. Everything seemed to be exactly how it always was.

Green eyes blinked open once, twice, and then, the third time....

"Eh?"

The blonde quarterback, practiced in noticing all things even barely out of place, was of course instantly alerted to the very unique difference between this morning and any other morning he'd experienced before in his life by several things. The first of which was the scent of something that _didn't_ _belong_ in Hiruma's room; the second was the unusual weight distribution that caused the bed to lay somewhat unevenly beneath him.

The third was the tuft of spiked brown locks that belonged to his speedster star running back.

Directly in front of him.

Which meant....

"... what the fucikn' hell?"

Hiruma chose not to move, partially because he wasn't 100% certain yet that he was indeed fully awake and alert. Perhaps he was still half-clutched in the throes of some bizarre dream. There was that possibility, his brilliant brain reminded Hiruma as he stared across at the strange situation that was laying an uncomfortably close distance next to him. Maybe he was still roaring drunk, and it wasn't morning but still the evening after their big win at the tournament, and that sunlight was really just a passing car, and Sena wasn't half-naked in his bed.

The blonde bit his tongue and cursed the walls up and down a moment later when he spat out his own blood.

"....Fuck."

Nope. Not a dream.

"Fuck."

Of course his solution to the unusual situation was an unusual amount of cursing.

"Fuck."

Even by Hiruma standards.

"_Fuck_."

Yet after abusing his favorite arsenal of vulgar vocabulary, Hiruma, the Deimon Devilbat's number one strategist and trickster, was strangely at a loss for what to do. For all the situations he'd planned for there had been a solution, a quick escape, a diversion.... some tactic that would give him the upper hand or firm standing ground. Hell, he'd always prided himself on being able to come up with the best solutions in times like this--when the cards were down and you were expected to be down and out, that was when Hiruma's scheming mind seemed to work best.

That same mind, for the first time that Hiruma could recall, drew something he'd never thought possible--a blank.

Sharp emerald eyes focused now on the boy in bed with him as the events and occurrences of the prior night suddenly assaulted him, like the opposing team's offense plowing through Kurita and the other defensive linemen. A long breath was drawn into the blonde captain as he regarded the small list of possibilities that would have brought him and his running back star to end up in such a precarious sleeping position.

It was a very, very short list.

Beside him, Sena breathed in gently and the cool breath gusted across the sheets and over Hiruma's bare chest. The quarterback felt a twitch by his left eye.

In the instant the sheets had moved, he'd seen them, or what had closely resembled--but no.

Those couldn't be...

Fearless. Yoichi Hiruma had nothing to fear. He didn't know fear.

And yet there was some strange sinking feeling in him as he reached over to lift the sheets off his teammate's chest for a second look that was like all the forces in the Universe screaming for his hand not to take the thin material and pull it away.

Yoichi Hiruma was not afraid. Nor was stupid.

One look was all it took.

".....Fuck."

The blonde strategist dropped the sheet and retracted his hand, eyes roving to the opposite corner of the room, as far from the other boy as possible as his mind went to work dealing with possibilities, angles, calculations.... All of them pointless distractions.

"Ha.... fuckin' chibi will have a hell of a day," he announced to no one in particular, "with that all up and down his neck. Fuckin' manager will probably think he got in a fuckin' fight...."

In the otherwise silent room, the comment only buffered the quiet for an instant.

The words lost their meaning as soon as Hiruma stopped saying them and then there was very little to distract the otherwise unshakable quarterback from dealing with the situation at hand.

The situation that was rapidly getting out of hand as the other boy shifted under the sheets, coming slowly out of sleep.

Hiruma's blank mind, perhaps stirred to movement out of desperation, maybe sparked to motion by blood finally circulating up to his brain, reacted to Sena waking up as it would react to the call of '**Hut**!' on the field. Immediately, paths opened up before Hiruma, escape routes and tricks and blackmail and a hundred other things all jumped to the forefront of his mind. Some sense of familiarity came back to Hiruma as he calculated and weighed his options. Looking at risk was something he was used to. He'd done it automatically ever since he was a kid and could instantly pick out the option that brought him closest to 100%; even if he had to sort through a thousand options in that single moment, because he was who he was, it could be done.

That instant seemed to drag on longer than usual, or had Hiruma miscalculated earlier, _was_ he still dreaming?

He revisited the bittersweet metallic sting where his teeth had punctured his tongue and reassured himself, though it was hardly reassuring, that no, he wasn't still dreaming. Damn it.

Well, he _was_ Yoichi Hiruma--fearless, brilliant, and someone who only seemed to but absolutely never miscalculated.

And moments later hazel eyes blinked off the bleariness of dreams and Sena stumbled into the strange reality of that morning.

Of him in bed.

With Hiruma.

"....wha?"

"Mornin', fuckin' chibi."

Exactly as he'd calculated, Hiruma watched with a growing grin as Sena took a few moments for the situation to sink in, blush a very impressive shade of beet-red, and stutter incoherent half-apology-questions. The grin was unstoppable. It was so reassuring to see that you were right, Hiruma mused. Perhaps that's why he found such happiness in football, where he was always right.

"Ah--ah, Hi-Hiruma-san, the-the, we, I m-m-mean, um--"

So predictable.

"Keheheheheh~"

"Aaaah, I m-m-mean, that is, ah, I, I'm--"

Too predictable.

"Fehheheheheh!"

"Wha-what I, um, that is, ah--"

Sena looked as if he was trying to fill up his head with all of the blood in his body. That, combined with his meaningless stuttering, tipped the scale for Hiruma.

"**_Wahahahahaha_**!"

He rolled on his back, kicking and nearly crying for laughing so hard. It was just too much! He laughed and laughed, thinking of nothing but the intense red and incoherent babbling.

The running back, on the other hand, was grateful for Hiruma's loud, if slightly maniacal, laughter, because in those moments when Hiruma was laughing, Sena couldn't be expected to ask for an explanation or apologize for having fallen asleep last night.

Last night....

They'd won their night game and the top spot at the tournament. Everyone had been impressed and in high spirits. There was plenty of food and drinks and entertainment at the following party. Sena remembered that much. Monta and the others had stayed behind to party and drink more. Sena knew he was a lightweight when it came to alcohol, he always ended up in strange situations the following morning, but never anything as awkward and unusual as this morning. Hiruma's roaring laughter made for good background noise as the events of the night prior flickered through Sena's memory. It was an incomplete memory, though, Sena mused. It was like trying to look at your reflection in moving water. You had an idea of what was there but the image wasn't very clear.

Of course, the laughter only lasted so long, and to Sena, it was frightening how one person could go from laughing so hard to dead silence as Hiruma suddenly did. In the very sudden absence of Hiruma's laugh Sena jumped, startled almost to yelping at the quarterback's strange mannerism. Unfortunately for Sena, it seemed the surprises for the morning had just begun. Hiruma had noticed the alarm clock next to his bed. The red numbers, usually illuminated against the black background of the digital time unit, were blank.

"_**Shit**_!"

Somehow, last night, they must've unplugged the clock....

Sena jumped again as his captain threw off the sheets and threw himself on to the floor in a frenzied search for his phone. Well, any of the many mobile devices that Hiruma seemed to have collected. At this point Sena had calmed down a bit from his initial shock and was thinking the situation over for himself. The obvious points before him were that 1) he wasn't at his own place, 2) he was half-naked, 3) he was at Hiruma's place, 4) in Hiruma's bed, 5) half-naked. Sena didn't like the way that sounded, even just the sounds of one and two. His attention returned to the owner of the bed as he scrambled about grabbing things from his room, apparently no longer focusing on Sena but getting ready for school and morning practice. That Hiruma's full attention wasn't focused on him gave the running back a bit of courage. He swallowed doubt and nervousness and spoke up.

"H-Hiruma-san?"

The blonde's head whipped around on his shoulders. Sena jumped again. "What?"

"I-It's... um..." The false courage that Sena had scraped up while Hiruma looked away was obliterated completely by the frightening gaze he met.

"Huh? Speak up!" Sena winced and regathered his scraps of courage, knowing it was useless to back down if Hiruma knew you had something to say.

"Last night. Do you..."

"Remember any of it?" Sena nodded. "Not a fuckin' clue."

The running back deflated slightly. "Oh."

He wasn't sure yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Not that it matters." Hiruma whipped his head around again. "You gonna sit on my bed all day or are you gonna get ready for morning practice?"

"....r-right!"

The silence returned, but for Hiruma at least, the rustling of clothes and clatter of books and guns made it seem like normal.

By the time both boys were dressed for morning practice with their school uniforms packed in their bags, the atmosphere had almost returned to something you could call normal. Hiruma's distraction of collecting things was working full-force until the unwelcome query of his uninvited guest piped up.

"So..."

"Che'. Talk faster, fuckin' chibi!"

"Ah! Of course--I mean, I'm sorry!" Before Hiruma could be pissed that Sena was wasting time apologizing and not hurrying up, the running back blurted out his worries.

"I-It w-w-won't be a problem? W-Will it?" Sena stuttered.

"What won't be a problem, eh?" Hiruma asked dangerously, pulling out a gun from who-knew-where. His eyes burned more fiercely than usual, perhaps at Sena's amazing stupidity, perhaps at the thought of having to potentially destroy his own floor to get a direct answer out of the startled squirt--

"It won't be a problem that we.... slept....."

Sena's outburst began with a full head of steam, a vocal explosion, yet tapered off at the end and eventually became a whimper.

"....together...."

"Ch'. We just slept, idiot," Hiruma retorted with an amused snort as he continued to pull out the things he'd need for the day, "don't make a big deal out of it."

Sena half-nodded, tempted to trust the captain, but it was **Hiruma** after all, so asking one more time might help quash the uneasy twisting in his gut.

"So, it-it-it really isn't a problem?" he stuttered, nervously hoping that the gun that Hiruma had just plucked out of nowhere wouldn't suddenly be aiming at him.

"It won't be a fuckin' problem unless you're late!" Hiruma cackled as he loaded both his equipment bag and a machine gun simultaneously. "If I get there before you do, you're doing two-hundred extra laps around the field!" With that, the captain of the Deimon Devilbats slung his bag over one shoulder and hoisted his gun on to other and took off at a run out of his own bedroom door for school.

And it wasn't a problem, Sena reflected.

Until he tried to walk.

**End Chapter 1 **

**End A/N:** Please leave a comment/review.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 2

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers: **Beyond the usual '_I don't own this series_' and '_there's yaoi/shonen-ai ahead_', no warnings.

**A/N:** Thank you for reviewing. Written encouragement, since that's the only kind you can offer unless you know me personally, is really the best encouragement for me to write more. Thanks again to all the people who read the story and commented, and to those of you who read but don't comment. (: I know you're there.

**Chapter 2**

It was a new record of seventeen minutes and thirty-five-point-two seconds. The prior record was four minutes and nine-point-nine seconds, set by Yuki, who had only barely escaped his mother's hawk-like surveillance to make it to practice at all. Hiruma had let him off with 100 extra laps around the field.

Sena began to wonder if Hiruma would ever let him stop doing laps as he carefully stepped onto the field.

"FUCKING SHRIMP!"

The freshman swallowed. That was most likely a no, then.

The rest of practice seemed to pause, Musashi still half-way through his sweeping kick motion, Kurita and Kosumubi with palms facing outward to push back an invisible enemy, Monta's arms outstretched to intercept a pass, as every eye turned to train on the late Sena.

Sena saw it in slow-motion. There are moments in one's life when things happen very, very suddenly and yet seem to go unbelievably slow. This was one of those moments for Kobayakawa Sena, and what he realized as every eye turned to him and Hiruma cocked a gun in his direction was that even with the long walk he'd taken to slowly ease his legs back into the habit of moving forwards and backwards there was no _way_ he'd be able to dodge the shots. And everyone would want to know why.

Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you read the situation, he didn't have to.

He had begun half a step in the opposite direction when a much larger, broader body stepped between him and the field. The shots hit all their marks on a much bigger, sturdier body, which stood practically immobile before Sena like a wall. Like a shield. Hiruma had fired off ten shots before his body reacted to what his disbelieving eyes saw and he retracted the gun.

Anyone else would've moved Sena out of the way of the oncoming shots; Shin simply let them hit his body. The impact didn't even cause him to flinch.

Now practice was stalled in full. If time had been going slow for Sena, it was now frozen for the rest of the Deimon Devilbats. Monta had missed his interception and the ball bounced on the grass of the field. Musashi's kick had come off as barely a punt, sending his own ball bouncing pitifully on the green. Taki and Yuki had fallen out of a run and into a jog which halted at the sight of Oujou's senior standing in front of their fastest teammate.

Dead silence washed over the field in the following moment.

Hiruma feared nothing. Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. He didn't fear anything or anyone, but that didn't stop him from being apprehensive. Apprehension and fear weren't the same, no, but stupider people could mistake apprehension for fear.

And there was certainly something to be apprehensive about in the dark eyes of Oujou's senior lineman.

It was unavoidable at this point. Even if he turned around and fired at the others to make them get back to training they would only question him later about it. Hiruma slammed the gun down into its holster and faced off with the boy between him and his star running back. Their gazes met and a rumble of silent thunder flooded the field. This was an unyielding force and an immovable force rushing to meet each other, and perhaps this was more effective on the Deimon Devilbats than any number of Hiruma's rounds, as most of them paused in their advances towards the dangerous side of the field. The tension was thick in the air. It felt as though not only time had stopped but gravity had increased as well.

Of all the players gathered for practice, only Monta was brave enough (or stupid enough) to ignore the terse air and jog steadily straight over to Sena, still on two shaky feet behind the massive wall that was Shin.

"Oi, Sena! You're late!"

Sena, broken free from the stillness of time and the unnatural weight of gravity, made a frantic motion for Monta to be quiet and stay back. It was to no avail as the other boy slowed his jog to a walk as he headed for Sena. Even when Monta reached Sena, Shin and Hiruma had yet to break off their silent war. Sena wilted slightly from the ominous air surrounding the two taller boys while Monta glanced between Sena and Shin.

"What's Shin-san doing here?"

Sena laughed nervously. "Actually, that's because...."

******_**Earlier**_******

The early morning sounds on the streets were every-day sounds. The rushing of cars, the padding of feet, the gentle murmur of the wind. The temperature wasn't bad and the weather was good. There wasn't a big crowd of people gathered for a celebration or a long line of automobiles headed to work, not at this time anyway. Shin chose to run at this time not because of the emptiness of the streets or the temperature, which were convenient, but their absence hadn't been the reason he'd chosen to run at this early hour. It was simply because he'd already accumulated the appropriate hours of rest required to bring his stamina back up to 100% after yesterday's practice.

His footfalls on the pavement were one of a few sounds that morning. It just happened that as he jogged along the consistent rhythm of one-two-one-two made by his own feet was interrupted by another rhythm. Any other rhythm would've been ignored, incorporating itself into the background noises that Shin's mind filtered out during his training, if it hadn't been for the identity of the runner himself. The components clicked together smoothly, quickly, in Shin's mind.

A small structure, light-weight, Deimon high school freshman uniform. This was Kobayakawa Sena, otherwise known as Eyeshield 21.

Sena.

And then there was a strange emotion trying to invade Shin as he watched the familiar legs press against the earth and propel Sena forward that was reminiscent of worry and wonder compressed into one.

There was something **odd** about Sena's run.

Before he could stop himself, he had jogged up behind Sena and called out his name.

"Kobayakawa Sena."

The running back did a funny dance coming to a half a few feet away from Shin. The Oujou senior slowed his jog to a stop and focused his entire attention on the smaller boy's legs. There it was again, he noted, eyes narrowing minutely in observation. That strange unexplained stiffness in Sena's stance. Shin waited for Sena to finish greeting him, contemplating the possible ways of politely inquiring about the difference.

"Y-you know you can call me Sena, right?" the younger boy was saying. Shin nodded and glanced down to the other boy's legs.

"Your gait," he said, pausing to see if that were enough.

"Eh?"

Shin blinked and reconfigured his question. He had to be more direct, apparently. "Your stride," he said, eyes still lowered to Sena's legs.

"M-my... stride? My steps?" Sena replied, glancing down at his own legs.

It was a little embarrassing but curiosity won out over propriety. Even more direct to the point of being blunt, then.

"The way you walk."

Understanding finally flushed across Sena's features, accompanied by an understandable red tinge.

"M-m-my walking..."

"Yes," Shin said, cutting Sena off in hopes of relieving him from some of the embarrassment of having to say it for himself, "Your gait is different than usual." If Shin could read minds, he would hear Sena's slightly awe-struck wondering of '_does Shin-san really know how I walk?_'. Of course, Shin couldn't read minds. Instead, he was mentally checking off a list of possible reasons for Sena's strange stride. There wasn't a long list of things that could physically impair you from walking correctly. Shin gave Sena a serious look.

"Koba... Sena. Are you injured?"

"_Hiiiiii_?"

"Are you hurt?" _To the point that your walking is impaired?_ It must've been a serious injury. Shin's eyes mobilized, searching for signs of excess strain or even blood. More red materialized on Sena's face as Shin knelt to one knee for a better look.

"S-S-Shin-san, there's really no need--"

Dark eyes rose to meet Sena's. The intensity of Shin's gaze shocked the Deimon running back. Words failed Sena in that moment. Taking the silence as a sign of permission, Shin lowered his gaze again to the running back's legs.

"Well," Sena murmured, his face ablaze, "I... guess you could call it an injury..."

Shin paused in his inspection of Sena's legs to look up at the boy's face. "What happened?"

Sena reached an impressive high note and shook his head.

"You don't want to talk about it?"

More fervent shaking.

The Oujou senior frowned. There was something wrong with the running back but with no sign of injury on what was visible of Sena's legs the list of injuries that could be impairing his walking became frustratingly short. But was it his place to be asking such personal questions at all, Shin asked himself. The boy wasn't dumb. Sena wouldn't withhold information about a serious injury from him. It was something else, then, and Shin had been inconsiderately pestering him about it. He felt foolish and tried not to let it show on his face. Shin stood up, a touch of stiffness to his own stance.

"I apologize if I made you uncomfortable, Kobayakawa." The senior moved to step back. Sena stopped shaking his head and gave Shin an apologetic look.

"It's not that, Shin-san--hey, didn't I say you could call me Sena?"

The Oujou lineman stopped his retreat and nodded. Sena took a moment to consider everything in his head and properly breathe. This was really too much for one morning. First, waking up in Hiruma's room, now having Shin worry about him... wait a sec.

Hiruma. Morning Practice. 200 penalty laps!

Sena's eyes widened considerably.

"_Hiiiii_~! Morning practice! Hiruma's going to get there before I do!" Sena bowed in a hurry to the Oujou senior and blurted out his apologies for running off and needing to be at practice. He spun quick enough to give anyone else whiplash and made to take off in the direction of school.

A twinge of discomfort from the previous night's activities threw a kink in that plan.

Shin's eyes followed the boy's motions. Very much like Deimon's quarterback, who could read Sena's capabilities flawlessly, Shin could see the accident in motion before it happened. Shin was able to correctly predict which one of Sena's legs wouldn't bend at the right angle (for whatever injury Sena refused to tell him about) and to which direction he would end up tripping. Being matched only by Sena in speed, Shin also predicted that if it had been anyone else they would have been too slow. He had pushed off from where he had been standing before Sena had time to hiss in discomfort.

Sena bounced harmlessly against the lineman's well-built body. Shin wondered at Sena's unusual clumsiness while the running back adopted what was surely a newly invented shade of red.

"You shouldn't train with this kind of injury," Shin advised finally as Sena squirmed to get away from his loose grip.

Deimon's running back took on an apologetic look at the other boy's words. _'Shin-san...' _

"But, I have to practice," he argued, "Hiruma-san will--"

There was a moment in which horrible, _horrible_ things popped into Sena's head that Hiruma, being who Hiruma was, certainly COULD and probably WOULD do to him, should he be any later than he already was in which words failed him. He laughed nervously.

"Ahahahaha... ...actually, I don't want to think about the things he'll do if I'm late to practice. Later than I am already, though, right?" Shin's flat gaze took Sena's paltry attempt at humor and flattened it.

Shin's mind was racing behind a rather blank, if hard, stare. Pieces of an ugly puzzle were beginning to fall into place. His morning jog didn't take him by Sena's house, his evening jog did. It _did_ take him through the area where Deimon's quarterback lived. The strange stiffness to Sena's walking. Sena's evasive behavior. Sena's conviction that being on the field practicing with an injury was more important than resting at home to recover. Surely, all of Deimon's whining about how unfairly their captain-coach treated them was just jest? There was no way... But all the clues were pointing to something Shin wasn't certain he could stomach.

"Does your quarterback do horrible things to you?" Shin asked abruptly.

Deimon's running back scratched his head nonchalantly.

"Well, it's Hiruma-san, so it's nothing that isn't expected," Sena replied without thinking, "Even after yesterday, there's practice..."

Sena fell quiet as he realized the Oujou senior had taken on a strange look. He tilted his head to get a better look at Shin's face and blanched at what he found there. Seeping through Shin's impenetrable mask of calm was anger...! Shocked, Sena wondered what in the world he had said to cause such righteous fury in the taller boy's eyes. Everyone knew about Hiruma being who he was, being the way he was. And everyone practiced hard. And then he retraced Shin's words.

_'...horrible things to you.'_

"Ah! Shin-san, it's not--"

Dark eyes flashed with concrete concern this time as Shin scoured what was visible of Sena's body for wounds. Now he didn't ask permission. Sena backed up into the nearest wall as Shin's searching eyes bored into him. Even his yelps of protest didn't stop Shin from reaching up and pulling the collar of his jacket away.

"--like that, Hiruma-san would never--"

"These," Shin interrupted, an iron-like grip around one of Sena's wrists and the pulled-down collar of Sena's jacket clenched in the other. Dark eyes narrowed as his suspicions were confirmed.

"They're bite marks."

Sena wondered if he were going to pass out with the tremendous amount of blood rushing to his face.

"They... b-bite marks?" he repeated, feeling a bit feeble.

Shin released the other boy's jacket and traced one of the red welts with two fingers. Steam threatened to plume out of Sena's ears.

That confirmed it in Shin's mind. That had to be it. He released Sena's jacket and wrist, apologizing with an averted gaze for mishandling the running back, and began to march steadily in the direction of Deimon's field. Sena had no choice but to chase after him, getting the feeling somewhere along the way that the Oujou senior was deliberately walking a step ahead of what Sena could comfortably manage. They weren't far from the field when Sena had worked up a comfortable stride which Shin had easily one-upped to keep ahead. The smaller boy was beginning to redden at the ears at the thought of Shin confronting Hiruma on the field and he found the strength in his legs to lunge. He managed to tackle Shin's back with all the effectiveness of a fly slamming into a wall. The Oujou lineman actually stopped walking out of surprise.

"Sena?"

The younger boy fought off a look of discomfort and half-bowed to the taller boy. "Please! It's not the way you think! Hiruma is..." He swallowed, coming back up from his bent-over position with a shudder, "...Hiruma-san isn't awful. He doesn't do horrible things to us, Shin-san. He just acts like it to intimidate us and other teams." Sena's eyes shone with sureness. "He means well."

Shin took a moment to nod. "Really, Shin-san. I promise it's not the way you think." The taller boy's eyes dropped from Sena's gaze to his collar again. The younger boy blinked and rose a hand to test out the marks. The red welts weren't that bad to the touch. Maybe they looked horrid from someone else's eyes but Sena hardly noticed them anymore aside from a sting in the background. A genuine smile blossomed across Sena's face and he bowed again.

"I'm sorry for making you worry, Shin-san."

Unseen by Sena, Shin tilted his head and averted his gaze. He wasn't 100% comfortable with being thanked for such a thing. Of course he was going to worry about his rival. Who else could compete with him fairly on the field?

"Well, I've got to get to practice," Sena was saying, picking up the bags that he'd dropped during his tackle, "I'm sorry that you had to come all the way out here with me."

The senior lineman monotoned something about incorporating the lost time into his evening routine.

With that, Sena cheerfully (or as cheerfully as one could, knowing they were LATE to one of Hiruma's practices) made his way towards the field.

Shin watched Sena walk.

The stiffness was still there.

He pulled on one of his gloves as he followed Sena silently towards the field.

_****Present****_

"...I w-w-was walking here and Shin-san happened to be jogging by! W-W-We kind of got into a race and ended up running around and around and around and almost got lost! Eheheheheh..."

Monta fought down a laugh. Sena's eyes were moving at light-speed! It was a MAX lie, for sure.

The Oujou lineman's even breathing was broken for an instant as he considered the lie Sena had spewed. His stance shifted and Hiruma could only be infernally curious as to the senior's real purpose on the field.

"It's true," Shin said suddenly, causing Sena and Monta to jump in surprise, "Sena and I have been running." His gaze got even darker, if possible, as he continued. "So he doesn't need to do more running right now. It won't advance his training."

The field was deathly still. Someone was telling Hiruma _**not**_ to train one of his star players? Musashi half-expected Hiruma to open up that little black book and send the Oujou senior fleeing with tears from the field. Instead, to the shock and surprise of everyone present, Hiruma didn't consult his little black trump card. A pink bubble, probably infused with several unheard curses, swelled in front of his face. Another stretch of tense silence. Sena didn't realized he and everyone else was holding their breath until that pink bubble finally snapped and Hiruma barked in his direction.

"What'd'ya think, fuckin' shrimp?" Hiruma said, popping his gum into the ominous silence, not looking away from Shin's hard gaze, "Think you've run enough for one day?"

"U-Um..." Sena's wobbling legs probably weren't going to support him much longer and Hiruma was letting him off if he said so? Was he dreaming or were there really such things as miracles? "Y-Y-Yes?"

The staring contest was still on.

Now even Monta was wise enough to take a step back from the openly hostile but silent air between the taller boys. The tension was nearly tangible. The Oujou senior's donned glove was as much a threat as the firearm at Hiruma's side. With neither boy taking a step in either direction Sena had the impression that they were in a western-style standoff. The first to move usually won...

"Keh."

Snap!

Sena blinked in disbelief as Hiruma turned to the field and roared for the others to get back to work. Practice took up again in full swing, Monta scrambling to get away from the dangerous side of the field as fast as he could. Nearby, Ceberus looked up at all the commotion.

Hiruma was still yelling when Shin came up behind him and put a hand on the slimmer boy's shoulder. Sena could only watch in horror from the sidelines...

But Shin stepped back a moment later, leaving a genuinely surprised look on Hiruma's face that Sena hadn't expected.

The Oujou senior made his way to where Sena was. His dark eyes met Senas, dropped to his collar, then rose again. "Your captain wants to talk to you. Then you are to go home and rest, Kobayakawa Sena." Sena nodded. Shin held his gaze captive a moment longer before turning from the field and removing his gloves. With that, Sena was certain the day's danger--or at least the morning's danger--had passed. He put a hand to his chest and sunk to the ground, sitting gingerly on his knees to give his legs a moment of rest. Even if he hadn't been running for some reason his heart was racing. He had the distinct feeling that somehow he had dodged bullets.

Hiruma was back to his cackling self when Sena trotted over.

"Um, Hiruma-san, about Shin-san..."

"Eh? I thought you were going home, fuckin' shrimp," Hiruma said over his shoulder. Sena swallowed.

"I-I am!" But he was curious about what Shin had said to Hiruma to cause that look, as though Shin had threatened Hiruma...

"...what did he say to you?"

Hiruma cocked his gun and hoisted it to his shoulder, turned, and gave Sena a long look.

"He said he'd break every bone in my body if I did it again."

Sena's jaw dropped.

"_Hiiiiii_~? B-B-But what did--that is, if--" Sena's cheeks flushed even as he asked, "--if you did _what_ again?"

He felt as though gravity had reversed, otherwise how else had all the blood in his body gotten to his face so fast? Oh _kami_, why had he asked that? He was pretty certain _what_ was causing the irregularity of his walking by now. He was pretty sure he knew. Did he just want to hear Hiruma say it out loud?

The blonde captain's face was fixed in a strange expression over Sena's head now to the point where Shin was still visibly walking off. Although Sena couldn't read minds Hiruma's face pretty much showed his puzzlement at what he'd been warned against. The Devilbat captain was seriously worried about how badly he'd misjudged Shin's level of idiocy as he finally answered Sena's question.

"If I set Ceberus on you."

**End Chapter 2 **

**End A/N:** Looking back, this chapter was actually really short. It would've been, I suppose, without that middle piece. Please leave a comment/review. (:


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 3

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers: **I do not own Eyeshield 21 or any of its characters.

**A/N:** Short, short chapter. Apologies about the last chapter. I won't try to write humor ever again, I promise.

**Chapter 3**

Sena rushed forward. _'Just two more laps.' _

His legs were ready to stop **now** but he had two more laps, just two. _'Just two more laps...'_

The mantra he'd started chanting at the end of his 198th lap had helped for about six steps. Then his throbbing legs had, well, throbbed with pain. He had run for the Deimon Devilbats for months, had crossed America on the same two legs that threatened to fall out from under him now. The Death March, unrelenting as it had been, had been fueled by passion for getting Musashi back on the team. That thought had pushed the team to do the impossible, day and night! And now that endless road seemed to rise up in front of him again... Hiruma had let him go home yesterday but Sena had known the blonde wouldn't let him off for showing up late to morning practice. He'd started running after everyone else had left school. The sun was still going down, how long was it going to sink for? How long had he been running? Laps around the field didn't even offer a change of scenery, at least on the open roads there had been cars passing and honking. Sena wasn't sure. All he knew was that his punishment ended at 200 laps and his legs had to hold on for _just a bit longer_. It was just two more laps...

"Lookin' a little tired, shrimp! Don't slow down now--just three laps left!" called a faux cheerful voice from the side of the field.

Panting, Sena paled as he willed his feet to move faster, but they just wouldn't. Somewhere after lap 171 he had lost feeling in his legs and was moving out of sheer willpower and fear of Hiruma actually shooting at him. The Deimon captain was typing on his laptop on one side of the field, overseeing Sena's penalty laps. The blonde actually had yet to use his ever-present firearm. Sena didn't want to give him a reason to use it, though, and willed his legs not only to keep moving but to move _faster_, damn it.

The quickening of Sena's pace put Hiruma's mind at ease and he let his gaze fall back to the monitor.

"Just four more laps, shrimp, then you can stop running."

The clicking of keys was the only sound other than Sena's panting and his feet padding across the field after that.

Forward. Sena's mind had lost all other operations but overseeing the functioning of his racing heart, the operation of his heaving lungs, and was using whatever reserve fuel Sena had for the rest of the week to push his body forward for_ just one more lap_. There wasn't space in his brain to grasp Hiruma's words. All there was was blinking and breathing and beating and forward.

One more lap.

Just one.

One...

The blonde snapped his gum violently. He didn't need to look up to know that Sena was slowing down again, he could hear the fucking footsteps. Didn't matter that he was panting like a dog, of course the fucking shrimp was gonna be exhausted at the end of this! And he _deserved_ to be. No, Hiruma didn't feel guilty about actually making the chibi run all 200 penalty laps without resting. That's what he'd said he was going to do whether the others were there to hear it or not. What Hiruma said, _went_, no exceptions. Not even Eyeshield 21. No one, _no one_ was late to team practices. He was pretty sure that after today everyone would get in the habit of showing up at least fifteen fucking minutes early.

Hiruma clicked and dragged a window on his screen, typing away as he called out to Sena without looking, "Don't slack off, fucking chibi, or you can start over again!"

Sena's eyes widened in horror.

Again?

_Again_?

There couldn't BE an again.

Hiruma wouldn't let him stop to rest, he'd make Sena run the 200 over again right here and now, and Sena knew better than anyone that if that happened he wouldn't make it.

He had to move faster.

Forward.

The blonde resumed his typing as the sound of Sena's footsteps increased, indicating he'd gotten back up to proper speed. Hiruma worked in the quiet until the background noises shifted abruptly. The pounding of feet was still present and he was still working on his laptop but something had stopped. He tried to ignore it, keys clicking away and feet hitting the grass of the field, but something in the back of his mind poked and prodded him. His mouth worked up into a frown. Some little thing he couldn't even think of off the top of his head? How important could it be? The shrimp was still running, he was typing, other than that, what had he been listening to? It bothered him to the point that Hiruma stopped typing, and in that moment, as his eyes rose up to search the field for other possible sources of noise, he realized what it was.

Panting.

The sound of panting had stopped.

But that didn't make sense, Hiruma puzzled, since the shrimp was still running, almost at full-speed now. He couldn't be running and not panting, that didn't make any sense. He leaned over his laptop and squinted and listened. There was the thrum of Sena's feet moving him forward, but since Hiruma had stopped typing, that was the only sound. Hiruma's eyes widened.

The brat wasn't breathing.

"Oi."

That wasn't safe. It wasn't _sane_.

"OI."

What the **fuck** was he thinking?

"Fuckin' shrimp--"

Hiruma stood up, nearly knocking over his laptop. Sena was still charging, not breathing, and _not listening_ _to Hiruma,_ damn it.

"SENA!"

There.

That was 200. Or 201. Or 205.

It didn't matter that the world was sinking into darkness or that someone was shouting at him. All that mattered was he'd made it and he didn't hear any gunshots. That meant he'd done his laps and he could sleep for a bit. Hiruma wasn't going to make him do them over. He was done. Done! That had to be good. Right?

The next thing Sena saw was stars. Stars and spirals and rainbows. And Ceberus in a tutu.

He was happy to float in the strange sea of strange things until something cool against his face brought him back to reality. He would later realize that the cool thing that had been applied to his forehead had been the back of Hiruma's hand. Swimming back up through the weight of unconsciousness, Sena groaned and tried to sit up. Something didn't work, however, and he only half-managed. It was impossible for him to have actually sat up, since he was already propped up with his back against one of Hiruma's knees.

The quarterback wondered if something was wrong with himself. There was a distinct thrumming in his ears, as though his heart was racing. But he hadn't run that fast to catch the idiot from falling flat on his face. It hadn't _felt_ that fast. Maybe it had been? He'd probably come fractions of a second within light-speed or something and that was the reason it felt like his heart had jumped up into his throat.

As Sena appeared to come back to the world of the waked and walking Hiruma shoved his pounding heart back down into its proper place and snarled at the younger boy.

"Did your _brain_ break, fucking shrimp? What the hell were you _thinking_?"

Sena wasn't certain he HAD been thinking at one point. He couldn't really claim to remember the past five minutes of hard running, but they had to have gone something along the lines of him moving forward... His brain dumped more stars and colors into his vision as his body physically remembered the point of extreme it'd been forced to.

"I had to finish," Sena mumbled, blinking away the spirals and stars, "finish... or they'll start over, and I can't. Can't go anymore, can't..."

"Ch', shut up," came Hiruma's voice and a cool palm against his forehead. A string of curses Sena couldn't repeat, lucid or not, and then water. Was it raining?

"Ah. Hiruma, it's cool..."

"You fried your brain alright," the blonde grumbled, dribbling water from a canister onto Sena's forehead, "You're burning up, fucking idiot."

"Haaa..."

"That's right," Hiruma snapped down at the boy, "You're an idiot. No one holds their breath while they're running!"

"Mmm-hmm." Sena sounded strangely content. A muscle under Hiruma's eye twitched.

"Fuckin' idiot."

"Hiiii..."

The running back's cry lacked its usual high pitch. It sounded more like he was deflating. Worry flickered across Hiruma's face. He snapped his fingers in front of Sena's face and held up three fingers.

"Oi, chibi. Whatddya see?"

Sena's eyes blinked open blearily. "T-Three more laps?" he asked faintly.

"Nah. No more laps today, chibi," Hiruma muttered, putting his hand down and propping himself up on his palms. "You're done for now."

"Done," Sena echoed, eyelids heavy.

"That's right, fuckin' idiot."

The running back nodded and tumbled back into the strange sea of shapes and colors. His head fell against Hiruma's chest. Hiruma picked up one of his hands off the ground to steady Sena as the boy's head threatened to slide off to one side. Eyes keen as an eagle's scoured the grounds as far as humanly possible for signs of life. The only other occupants of the field were the wind and silence, and so Hiruma adopted a bored look and contented himself to sit in the field with an exhausted boy leaning up against him.

**End Chapter 3**

**End A/N:** Like I said, no more attempts at humor. This _is_ an attempt at light fluff, though. Apologies if anyone's been written too terribly OOC. Please leave a comment/review.


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 4

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers: **Don't own the characters. Yaoi/Shonen-Ai/Slash ahead; don't like, don't read.

**A/N:** I tried to come up with something witty for the title. x_x I failed.

**Chapter 4**

"Oi," a familiar voice roused the runner from his exhaustion-induced nap, "Get up."

Sena sat up, rubbing his head. He blinked sleep from his eyes and looked around. How long had he been lying there? The sun was finally beyond the horizon and the school's evening lighting was beginning to flicker to life. Hiruma was shoving Sena off of his knee and back onto the grass. The runner got to his feet and dusted off his pants. His legs weren't throbbing anymore and his breathing had returned to normal. Things seemed okay now.

Hiruma stood up as well and made his way to the side of the field he'd left his things on. Sena trotted along after, his own possessions in the same vicinity.

They gathered up their things. Sena noticed a folder lying on Hiruma's laptop that hadn't been there before he'd passed out, and Hiruma caught him looking before Sena could look away. The quarterback and captain scowled and snatched up his things.

"I almost forgot. You can do 50 more laps tomorrow," Hiruma said, stuffing the folder and papers into his bag.

"Huh?" Sena replied intelligently. What had he done to earn fifty more laps? He couldn't have possibly gotten into trouble while being asleep...

"But--why?"

"Shin showed up."

"_Hiiiii--_?"

_****Earlier****_

Slender fingers pulled gently through loose spiked locks. He wasn't sure how long they'd been lying on the field like this but the sun had finally reached the horizon and was setting. It was taking its sweet fucking time, though. Hiruma had resolved to wake the shrimp, fully rested or not, after the sun had disappeared behind that horizon line, and now it was mockingly lingering just above vanishing point.

After a long stretch of silence in which Hiruma had occupied himself with devising new football tactics and pulling at the unconscious brat's hair, the silence was broken by the sound of footsteps. Hiruma turned his head on a swivel to see who it was, fully prepared to launch Sena off of him if it would prevent whoever was headed this way from getting blackmail material. Every bit of him tensed in preparation as the figure came into view.

He blinked in absolute disbelief and realized that shoving Sena away was probably the _worst_ thing he could do with the person heading at him being who he was.

It was Shin.

Hiruma moved to take his hand off Sena's shoulder but the boy's head started to slide off his chest again. The quarterback leaned forward to re-capture the boy's shoulders and steady him and by the time all that was done Shin was towering over the two. Hiruma glowered up at him with a look that would've sent anyone else running in tears.

"What are you doing here?"

Shin looked at Sena, ignoring Hiruma's question. That, in turn, further pissed off the quarterback.

"What _the_ _fuck_ do you want?"

"Why is Sena unconscious?"

The question threw the blonde through a loop momentarily. He didn't have a snarky comeback for that.

"So informal," Hiruma muttered, his eyes narrowing at the sound of his running back's name coming from the Oujou senior's lips, "When did the fuckin' shrimp give you permission to use his name?"

"Yesterday. Why is he unconscious?"

The blonde quarterback was about to ask Shin why the hell he kept following the running back around when the Oujou senior reached into his pocket for something. Hiruma felt a muscle near his eye twitch as Shin pulled out his gloves and he suddenly recalled a certain promise the taller boy had made him just the other day.

Hiruma made wild threats, most of which weren't ever carried out.

Shin didn't make threats. He made promises.

Promises and strange, strange assumptions.

Hiruma _liked_ his bones they way they were. If he didn't come up with some reason why Sena was lying unconscious in his lap, that was probably going to change.

Quickly, violently, and despite anything he attempted to do about it.

'_Shit_.'

_****Present****_

Sena stopped listening a moment and snuck a glance up and down the taller boy, eyes searching in a manner similar to Shin's. Hiruma didn't look worse for the wear. The running back's fear evaporated as quickly as it had manifsted. Of course Shin wouldn't really break every bone in Hiruma's body. He wasn't that kind of person, after all! Sena fought to keep a small smile off his face as his worries disappeared. His relief didn't go unnoticed by his captain.

The blonde hiked an eyebrow. So the shrimp was worried about him? Cute. And fitting, considering what he'd said to get out of trouble. Sena realized abruptly that Hiruma had stopped talking and prompted him to begin again with a question.

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him we're dating."

Sena's eyes bulged.

"_HIIIIIII~_??? B-B-But--"

Hiruma spun on Sena and jabbed a finger into his shoulder.

"I didn't have a lot of time to think of some other excuse for you to be lying in my lap, idiot!" Hiruma hissed. "So now we're dating. End of story."

Sena did an excellent impression of a landed fish.

Hiruma slung his bags over his shoulder and said pointedly, "Don't _**EVER**_. Be. Late. To. Practice. AGAIN."

The brunette nodded frantically.

Hiruma glared a second longer before turning and stalking off in the direction that would take him home. Sena remained where he was for a while until the fright had left he legs and then picked up his things and headed home himself.

Half-way home, he realized Hiruma was probably serious.

_'Hiiiii...'_ This time steam really _did_ plume out his ears at the thought. Dating Hiruma. Did that mean they had to go on actual dates with each other? Sena tried to picture Hiruma taking someone on a typical date and his brain threatened to short-circuit. The runner shook his head. _'I don't even want to think about it,'_ he moaned internally, _'How did things get to be like this? At least I only have to do 50 penalty laps tomorrow._' He swore he would never be late to practice ever again, even if it killed him.

He'd made it to his door when he remembered that he'd never asked Hiruma what was in that folder. '_Probably nothing important,'_ Sena mused as he stepped inside and slipped out of his shoes.

**End Chapter 4**

**End A/N:** I know what I promised last time, I swear, but this chapter just... just happened. ._. I think I finally have a plot/direction for this story. Please leave a comment/review.


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 5

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers: **Some OOCness, no spoilers yet.

**A/N:** Again with the failed attempt at humor and fail plot. Sorry! I'm reading Eyeshield 21 for more inspiration and it's coming along in my head.

**Chapter 5**

Morning's early sun rays found a certain American Football runner in deep sleep, despite the hour of the day being just minutes before when school began. The lean boy's body was sprawled out comfortably across his bed, sheets half covering his torso, soft snoring accompanying the gentle sound of breathing, a rhythm unbroken in the room.

Well, formerly unbroken, as the alarm clock began to ring.

_Biii, biii, biii, biiii._

_'It can't be morning already,'_ Sena thought woefully, turning over under the covers with a groan, '_It feels like I just got home...'_

_Biii, biii, biii, biiii._

The alarm clock was still busily announcing that, yes, it _was_ already morning, and that Sena should've gotten up ten minutes ago. The brunette groaned again and pulled the covers off his head.

The beeping of the alarm clock sank steadily into the background as Sena felt his legs throb. Hiruma had actually made him run the 200 penalty laps yesterday for showing up late to practice the day before. Sena laughed half-heartedly as he gave the muscles in his legs an experimental flex. Yep. There would be a wobble to his step again today, but this time it wouldn't be from... A blush raced across Sena's cheeks as he thought about the pain of just a few days ago. It was long gone now, but that didn't stop Sena from thinking about what had happened to cause that kind of discomfort. Lying prone on his bed, Sena really couldn't help but imagine. Images came to mind, images Sena wasn't sure anyone else had ever seen. Heat steadily rose to his already flush face. The thought of Hiruma, usually cackling and yelling and threatening, flush with heat on his own cheeks and doing devilish things to Sena's body; biting, pulling, caressing, licking, touching--

_Biii, biii, biii, biiii. Biiiiiiiiiii--!_

The brunette blinked, coming out of his short-lived memory of that night, and turned to actually check the time on the alarm clock.

His eyes bulged. "Uwah! I'm late! I'll be late!"

Sena threw off the covers like he was on fire, grabbing his clothes and backpack and racing down the stairs, struggling to get into Deimon High's uniform before he got out the door, stopping for nothing as he made a mad dash for school.

****At Deimon****

"...so surprised to see him there!"

"Yeah, I never thought we'd get to see Sakuraba-sama in person!"

"Even though he cut his hair he's SO cute!"

"Kyaaaaah! I **know**, right?"

Delighted squeals echoed in the halls of Deimon as students began to head to their first class of the day. There was more squealing and giggling than the norm, Raimon Tarou observed as he walked with his school bag hanging from his side, but that was to be expected with everything that had happened yesterday. Yukimitsu caught sight of the shorter receiver and waved as he walked over. Raimon waved back, a grin already spread wide across his face.

"Did you see it on the news?" he asked the taller boy as Yuki fell into step beside him, "It must've been some kind of MAX disaster!"

"Ah, I'm sure there's a logical explanation for it," Yuki disagreed happily, smiling. "It's not every day that the plumbing floods every floor of buildings like that..."

The two American Football players made their way through the hall, unintentionally missing the commotion that took place next.

The sky was clear that day, so the thrumming in the air like the rumble of thunder was plausible cause for curiosity. Those students still outside near the front of the school turned to look out the gates towards the source of the sound.

Coming at Deimon High like a small herd of stampeding bison was a crowd of sprinting American Football players.

Sena himself wasn't sure when it had gotten to be like this. He remembered briefly catching sight of Shin as he sped down the street, but he hadn't stopped. He was going to be late. He didn't slow down when he narrowly missed plowing into the frightening figure of Kongou Agon, despite the dangerous ripple in the air behind him following the near collision. He hadn't broken pace when he dashed between two towering teenagers, one with blue hair and the other with long blonde hair. He never stopped, not once, not when his name was called, hollered, or dropped with a hint of curiosity or worry. He kept going, mostly oblivious to the growing dust cloud following close behind, conscious only of moving forward as fast as he could.

Hiruma, one of the few lingering delinquents outside at the time, saw the crowd of runners headed by Deimon's own Eyeshield 21 and grinned like Christmas come early.

Suzuna saw it through the window of her first period class. She blinked out the window, pressing her face against the glass.

"Huh."

Behind her, the three Huh-Huh Bros, almost out of habit, jumped on the Huh-train.

"Huh?"

"Haaa?"

"_Haaaaaan_?"

Outside, the calls were similar, though instead of a declination, it was a name.

"Sena!"

"Oi, Sena!"

"Kobayakawa-san?"

"SENA!"

"_Fucking shrimp trash_--!!!"

"_Hiiiiiiii_~!"

Hiruma burst into cackles and tears simultaneously.

"Kekekekekekekekekeh!"

_**GONG!**_

The school bell sounded just as Sena came hurtling through the school's gateway and into the courtyard. Deimon's running back groaned in defeat and cut the steam off his sprint. He was late for sure! No amount of speed would get him up three flights of stairs and all the way down the hall before the last 'gong', and his legs were already threatening to wobble beneath him.

"I ran all the way from home," Sena lamented, a whine tugging at his tone of voice as he slowed his run to a walk, "But it's no use."

He dropped his school bag on the ground and stopped to breathe a moment.

It wasn't until then that he noticed the small crowd of American Football players that had gathered.

Sena's eyes bulged for the second time that morning. There were so many different talented people that had turned up and followed him to Deimon! Shin from Oujou! Kakei and Mizumachi from the Poseidon team! Tetsuma from Seibu was there as well, though Kid was absent. Sena blinked and felt a chill run down his spine. There had been one more person he had passed, hadn't there? Why did it feel like he was forgetting someone important? Someone...

"Oi. Fucking shrimp trash."

...frightening? Sena yelped as the back of his uniform was yanked unforgivingly backwards, and he wilted under Kongou Agon's glower.

"Did anyone teach you how to _apologize_?" he snarled, "You almost ran into me."

Sena nodded fervently, sweat that had nothing to do with how hard he'd run gathering on his brow and an apology on his lips, when a hand clamped down on Agon's wrist. Agon's eyes snapped sideways to catch sight of the unfortunate fool but any snide comment was stifled by the gaze that met his. Steely black eyes glowed with silent thunder.

"Kongou Agon," the taller boy monotoned, his grip on Agon's arm like iron.

"Shin-san," Sena said, blinking in surprise as Agon released his wrist.

"Keh. Here to stick up for your trash rival, Oujou? That's fucking sweet," Agon scoffed, yanking his wrist from Shin's palm. The Oujou senior said nothing as the other boy sneered.

"Yo, Sena!" A towering figure appeared over one of Agon's shoulders, a grin visible through several long blonde locks. "That was some run!"

"You must've been going at full tilt," came Kakei's softer voice, his shadow cast over Agon's other shoulder.

The Shinryuuji star player glanced around at the people gathered and snorted. "Keh..." He shouldered his way out of the group that had come to stand by Sena, giving no sign that he felt several intense gazes boring into his back.

As Agon slipped away from the group, Sena felt his excitement and surprise come back.

"Mizumachi-san, Kakei-san!" he exclaimed, "Tetsuma-san? Shin-san, and Agon-san..." Four of them offered Sena nods of greeting as their names were called; Agon, in his own fashion, snorted. So many talented American Football players had showed up--but they all went to different schools. Oujou, Seibu, Shinryuuju... what were they doing near Deimon? '_And why did they run after me like that?' _Sena wondered with a nervous smile,_ 'We're not playing football right now.' _His gaze automatically snapped to where Hiruma was sitting, still cackling his head off. It was possible, though, with that person... with Hiruma, anything was possible, Sena thought, though the others were talking to him now.

"It's good to see you, too, Sena-kun," Kakei said with a small smile. Beside him, Mizumachi sported a not-so-small smile, tilting his head the other way. "Yo, short stuff!"

The brunette nodded. "Yeah. It's good to see everyone here, too. But--"

_**SNAP.**_

From behind the group, a loud pop broke up the group's pleasant atmosphere. The blonde beckoned to them once he'd gotten their attention.

"Oi," Hiruma called, "Don't any of you delinquents know what that bell means? School's started." He spun a firearm on one hand, broad grin in its rightful place across his face. "We're getting to class."

He appeared at the group's edge and grabbed Sena's shirt and dragged him inside the halls without further ado. Sena couldn't get over his shock at the gathered people to properly protest at being dragged around by his shirt, but he had enough sense to scramble for his pack. Hiruma let him go once they were in Deimon's halls, turning to head in another direction for his own devices (whether or not he was actually headed to class was up for debate). Sena glanced around as though he'd never seen the halls of the school before, the strange events of the morning having thrown him off, and jogged after Hiruma with a question.

"Hiruma-san! Why is everyone here?"

The blonde quarterback snapped his gum with a grin and Sena noticed the folder he'd seen the day prior nestled under one of the Deimon captain's arms.

"Whadd'ya mean, Sena-kun?"

The running back blinked in surprise, turning his head to see Mizumachi tilt his head in curiosity.

Sena jumped as the tall blonde's ever-present teammate appeared to his other side, the two Poseidon teammates effectively dwarfing him. "Didn't you see the news?" Kakei asked.

Hiruma cast Sena a skeptical look as the brunette's head swiveled from Mizumachi to Kakei and back in surprise. "It was on the headlines of today's paper, in big fucking bold print," he mentioned, "Didn't even see a newspaper on your way to school, fucking chibi?"

Sena shook his head. He'd _**run**_ to Deimon, going _**full speed**_. All he'd seen was the road as it blurred beneath him. Luckily for Sena, Mizumachi was more than happy to fill him in on what he'd missed.

"You see, for Oujou--"

"--and Seibu--" chimed in Kakei.

"--and Shinryuuji--" Shin added, causing Sena to jump in surprise. Had everyone followed him inside, too? What was going on?

"--something went wrong, something went wrong!"

Kakei shook his head. "That doesn't tell Sena-kun anything," he argued, giving Mizumachi a shove. The blonde grinned broadly, as if the news were something to be excited about.

"All of the plumbing for our schools backed up and overflowed!"

Sena's jaw dropped.

"T-T-Then--"

"The buildings are totally shut down," Kakei supplied with half a grin, "We can't get to the classrooms without wading through water!"

Shin nodded. "The facilities at Oujou cannot be accessed..."

Mizumachi had shed his T-shirt and was waving it about like a banner. "Basically, our schools have all gone to shit--literally!"

"Mizumachi, we're at school--your shirt--"

"We're to attend Deimon until the plumbing's been fixed," finished Tetsuma, wearing a 'mission accomplished' look.

Sena's jaw didn't seem capable of coming back up by itself. The news was too much! Had every school in the area except Deimon been flooded? But then, what about the rest of the students? Hiruma grinned at Sena's struck-stupid look and leaned over devilishly.

"Leave that open and flies will land, fucking shrimp."

The running back stared a moment more before enlisting his hands to get his mouth shut. He turned in the direction Hiruma had been standing and blinked, surprised to still find him inches from where his ear had been--effectively putting them nose to nose. Mizumachi and Kakei were following Tetsuma down the hall toward a classroom, so only Shin and Agon saw the blonde quarterback close the gap between them in a quick, chaste kiss.

Agon actually dropped his jacket in shock.

Shin blinked excessively for a moment as though he wasn't sure of what he was seeing.

Sena stared at the blonde as Hiruma backed off with a cackle.

"Dating," he said pointedly, and wandered off down the halls.

The three American Football players stood frozen for a few moments, each nursing his own thoughts about the strange event. It was the meek Eyesheild 21 that shook off his surprise first.

"C-Class," Sena said shortly, unconsciously resorting to speaking in Power-Go in the face of strange and uncertain circumstances. He turned on one foot and dashed down the hallway in the direction he'd come from, not looking back.

When he finally arrived in his first class Sena wasn't sure he could manage to speak. He bowed when he was berated for being late and hurried to a seat next to Raimon and Suzuna. They had already begun to take notes from what the teacher was saying up front, and Sena pulled paper and a pencil out of his school things to do the same. "Hey," Raimon whispered once the teacher had fallen back into a comfortable drone of instruction, "everything okay, Sena?"

"Yeah," Suzuna whispered from his other side, "You look a little wobbly."

Sena's only response was to blow a feeble pink bubble.

**End Chapter 5**

**End A/N:** If there are any grammar/spelling mistakes I've glossed over, I apologize in advance. Sorry. Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment/review.


	6. Chapter 6

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 6

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers: **None, I think.

**A/N:** Goodness. So many comments about the quick kiss. You all underestimate the abilities of Hiruma's tongue. Apologies beforehand for the short chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Second class period found Sena staring straight ahead, eyes set on nothing and jaw working mechanically. Around him the chatter of his classmates which had grown to a dull buzz during the brief period of the transition of teachers had been replaced with rummaging for paper and pencils. The second period instructor was busy at the board writing in chalk so only his back saw Sena's inattentive stare. Maybe it was because he was having so much trouble in English that during this period Sena's mind chose to flood with thoughts of everything had had happened so far. Defeating the Hakushuu Dinosaurs and getting into the Christmas Bowl, partying, waking up next to his captain... strange questions from Shin, 200 penalty laps, being told that he's now dating the American Football Team Captain... running into everyone from the tournament, then everyone showing up at Deimon, and what Hiruma probably knew had been Sena's first kiss.

It had been too brief to even be bittersweet, Sena reflected, drawing his hand across his paper as though he were actually paying attention to the teacher's lecture. The foreign characters on the board still didn't make sense. The kiss didn't make sense. Didn't you only kiss the ones you love? But it was Hiruma, Sena argued mildly in his mind, and with Hiruma anything was possible.

_'I'm doing badly in this class_,' Sena reminded himself, blinking and sporting a half frown, '_I should be paying attention.'_

As soon as he finished the thought his mind drifted back to the injustice of that morning.

To the kiss.

'_My first kiss_(1)_... I never kissed a girl before, and I never dreamed I would kiss a guy, let alone a guy as scary as Hiruma_,' Sena thought as he dragged his pen across the page, trying absently to mimic the strange combinations of English characters on the board. But what made Hiruma so frightening was his predictable unpredictability. The only thing that anyone knew about Yoichi Hiruma was that you could never know what to expect from him.

What was Sena expecting to gain by going through these kind of thoughts? '_I don't know... I'm not sure,' _Sena groaned in his head, eyes sliding from the board and out the window to the sky as morning transitioned into early afternoon, '_I don't even know if there's a point to thinking about it. It's happened-nothing can help that now..._' Mid-way through this lamentation someone whispered his name.

"Kobayakawa-san? Kobayakawa-san!"

An unfamiliar voice pulled Sena out of his thoughts. He turned to the apologetic and unfamiliar face of a student from Oujou. The boy smiled sheepishly and whispered even as he took notes.

"Kobayakawa-san, sorry for interrupting you, but class isn't over, and this teacher looks like he's a real stern guy. You probably shouldn't space out too much."

Sena looked back up at the board and down at his paper, then to the other boy's paper. He had already taken half a page of notes while Sena had written two lines. "Ah-thank you!"

"You're Deimon's running back, right? If you get suspended for doing poorly in school, it'll look bad for Deimon."

Sena blinked several times before nodding. "I'm grateful," he said before turning to look towards the front of the room. The other student nodded and returned to writing as well. The thoughts from before were thankfully absent now, allowing Sena to concentrate on the lecture right until the bell rang, and he packed up his things with everyone else and headed to lunch, contentedly thinking of English vocabulary and phrases.

The cafeteria was crowded with more students than usual, obviously the spillover from other flooded schools. Sena wondered which schools hadn't been flooded besides Deimon and who had been sent there. '_Not everyone's at Deimon_,' he observed as Sakuraba and another Oujou student made their way through a mob of girls towards the lunch line, '_But there's a lot of interesting people here now...!'_

Pleased for once that his mother still made him lunch every other day, Sena trotted outside to find Monta or Yuki or Suzuna. As he searched he was joined by Shin. The senior nodded to Sena, who smiled and invited him along to eat, and glanced to where Sakuraba was being drowned in a sea of too-eager estrogen.

After a fruitless search Sena sat down at an empty table. Shin excused himself for a moment. By the time Sena had sat and gotten the wrapper off of his bento the taller boy had returned with a female-free Sakuraba in tow looking relieved and thankful to have been extracted from all the attention. Sena waved as he joined the table and the three boys dug heartily into their lunches.

"So what's it like," Sena asked over a mouthful of rice, "Oujou, I mean." He'd only heard about the accident in class and in passing conversations between classes. He'd been pretty occupied this morning and last night to have heard anything about it and retain the information. Sakuraba smiled and obliged Sena's curiosity.

"Everything's flooded. Some main pipe burst and water's gotten to every part of the buildings from the top down! Luckily it happened at night so no one was hurt and most of our work was safe at home. There was no way for us to use the facilities there, let alone the classrooms. The field's fine, so we can practice back at Oujou. Coach has us jogging back after classes end!"

"All the way back to Oujou?" Sena asked in disbelief. Sakuraba grinned. "Actaully, it's Shin's fault!"

"Huh?" Sena asked intelligently.

Sakuraba laughed. "Coach was gonna have us share the field with you guys. Shin said that would be an ineffeciant use of a field and when Coach told him he could take a hike, Shin did! That gave Coach the idea, and so now we ALL have to jog back to school every day for warm up before practice."

"It will only build endurance," Shin said after swallowing a bite from his apple before returning to his silent healthy gorging.

Sena laughed. It certainly sounded like something Shin would suggest (inadvertently of course)!

He took another bite so his mouth was full when a familiar hand fell on his shoulder and two familiar voices sounded in his ear.

"Oi, Sena."

"Let's talk."

The brunette put down his lunch and stepped away from the table, apologizing to Shin and Sakuraba as he let himself step aside with his teammates. He walked with the Huh-Huh Bros, only slightly apprehensive of the situation, as they led him away from the lunch area and to the back part of the school. For a moment he wrestled with uncertainty. Sure, they'd bullied him a lot, but that was all in the past... right? They were on the same team now, they all knew he was Eyeshield 21. What was going on? It appeared they were going to let him have it, whatever 'it' was, when they came to a stop behind the school. After a rather pregnant pause the blonde spoke up.

"Look, Sena," Juumonji started, "We know."

"You... you know?" Sena parroted, uncertain of what exactly it was that they could know. There were a lot of things...

"Haaa? Don't play dumb, idiot!"

"I don't understand what you mean," Sena clarified, "What do you know?" What _was_ there to know? It wasn't as though they didn't know his identity as Eyeshield 21. He wasn't sure there was anyone besides the team manager who really didn't know his position on the team-

"Sena," Juumonji startled Sena out of his thoughts, "we know what Hiruma's been doing to you."

For the second time that week, Sena wondered if his face was going to combust with the amount of blood rushing to his cheeks.

"Hiiiii?"

"Yeah, an' we don' like it, ironic as that is."

"But-"

Before Sena could ask what exactly Hiruma was doing to him the Huh-Huh Bros jumped on his case.

"Whaaaat?"

"Haaaah?"

"Don't be such a wimp, Sena!"

"Yeah! Geez. You're Eyeshield 21 now! You don't have ta take that shit from Hiruma."

Sena blinked. "Wait... what?"

"Aaah, stop foolin'. You know what we're talkin' about."

"Um..."

Juumonji crossed his arms over his chest and brought the issue to the table. "...Hiruma's been pickin' on you a lot lately, hasn't he?"

The brunette blinked disbelieving eyes. "What?"

"Don't be like that," the dark-haired teen grunted, waving off Sena's disbelieving query, "Ain't no use tryin' to hide stuff from us, 'specially when it's so obvious."

Sena was sure that the only obvious thing here was the misunderstanding that was occurring.

"We all been late to practice before," Kuroki pointed out, "An' ain't none of us had to run 200 laps straight!"

"Yeah, an' he likes to single you out when anyone's slackin'-not that y'slack," Togano added gruffly, grinding his teeth a bit.

Sena shuffled his feet. "I-I wouldn't call it picking on..."

"Huh?"

"Haaa?"

"_Haaaaaan_?"

The runner sweatdropped. It had been a while since the three declanations had been directed at him; it had gotten a lot more intimidating during the Huh-Huh Bros time in the Deimon Devilbats.

"Don't play dumb, Sena," Juumonji said, shoving Sena's shoulder, "We're all part of the same team now."

"Yeah!" the other blonde cheered.

"And you shouldn't let Hiruma bully you however he wants."

"But I-"

"Juumonji's right," Togano cut in, slinging his arm around Sena's neck, "We're apart of a team now!"

"We got your back," Kuroki agreed, throwing his arm around Sena the other direction so he was sandwiched between the two, "Even if it's that devil, we'll stick up for you!"

Even though it seemed for a strange reason, Sena was touched by the show of support. "Guys..."

A third blonde cheerfully slapped his own arm around Sena's neck, and that was odd, because there were only two blondes in the Huh-Huh Bros.

"Who's a devil?"

A wail went up from behind the school accompanied by gunshots and cackling, causing students at lunch to flinch in recognition.

When the grinning culprit emerged from the back of the school, a wobbly-legged brunette in tow, there were three figures left behind the school with impressive lumps on their heads.

Sena returned to the table just as Shin and Sakuraba began to consider searching for him. Sakuraba greeted him cheerfully enough and Shin nodded in what seemed to be approval. Sena wondered at that and realized his captain was making an effort to visibly hold his hand where Shin could see. Hiruma gripped his shoulders on his way to his seat, glanced at Shin, and said pointedly, "Dating." He deposited Sena into his seat again and disappeared.

When Sakuraba asked where Sena had gone to the boy's only response was to resignedly spit something into a napkin (2) and replied that it was nothing out of the norm, for with Hiruma, unpredictability, destruction, and chaos **was** the norm.

* * *

**End Chapter 6**

**End A/N:** I do hate how I have the end of the story written and am now quite befuzzled as to how I'm supposed to connect all the pieces. Fudgemonkeys. Please leave a comment/review.

(1) Actually, this is not Sena's first kiss. He just doesn't remember that yet.

(2) I'll give you one guess and one hint. It's pink.


	7. Chapter 7

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 7

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers: **None

**A/N:** I apologize that this chapter took a while to write, it's a bit late. Thank you for all the reviews. Please enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter 7**

_Biii, biii, biii, biii. _

Sena put down his pencil and glanced around the room. Rats. Where had he left his phone? The noise seemed loudest from the corner by the door where his backpack was. He scrambled for his bag, hoping that whoever was on the other line wouldn't hang up before he found his cell phone. He managed to flip it open on the very last ring.

"H-Hello?"

"Fuckin' chibi," came a familiar voice, "what the hell are you doing?"

"Ehh?" Sena's mind blanked momentarily out of fear. Had there been practice scheduled for today? He was almost certain there wasn't. There was never practice Sunday mornings. _'This is Hiruma,_' Sena reminded hmself. Better ask, just in case.

"Um, Hiruma? W-was there practice scheduled for..."

"No practice," the annoyed voice cut through his question, "I've been waiting. Get over here, you're late."

'_Huh?' _Sena thought. '_If not practice, then what for?'_

"Uh... I'm, uh, I'm late for..."

"_Get the hell over here_!"

Sena jumped as Hiruma's explosive response nearly burst the speaker on his cell. He nervously decided that it was better to just pretend he knew what was going on and get to wherever the crazy blonde wanted him to be. Fast.

"Right! W-Wh-Where?"

"School, moron," was the sarcastic reply, "Stop stuttering and get over here." There was a pause and Hiruma's voice instructed, "Don't wear your uniform."

Sena didn't have time to ask _what_ he was expected to wear if not his uniform. Hiruma had hung up.

_****At Deimon****_

The brunette had picked loose clothing, a white T shirt with a green collar, shorts that were easy to run in, and a pair of sneakers. They wouldn't be as good as his spiked runners but sneakers would work well on both gravel and grass. Hiruma said they weren't going to practice, but there was still the possibility Sena would end up training somehow, and in Sena's experience it was better to be prepared. When he got to school he went straight to the clubhouse. As he'd guessed Hiruma was waiting for him there. What he hadn't expected was for Hiruma not to be in uniform; instead he wore a casual pair of black slacks and red T with large black skulls (okay, maybe that was within expectations. It was _Hiruma_, after all).

The folder from before was tucked under one arm and the quarterback looked up from his watch at Sena's arrival.

"Follow me."

Hiruma stalked off out of the clubhouse and onto the sidewalk leading towards town. Sena fell in line behind him, trotting to keep up with the quarterback's longer strides.

The blonde let this go on for a block or two before rounding on Sena with a frown, grabbing Sena's elbow and dragging the boy to stand next to him.

"Keep up," Hiruma ordered.

Sena nodded and obediently kept pace at Hiruma's side.

They actually went decently far into town to a small bistro. It was a pretty popular place. Sena was surprised when Hiruma walked in. He wouldn't have pegged Hiruma for the type to eat at such a crowded restaurant. There were plenty of tables, most of which were occupied, and a long counter where food was being prepared in front of the customer's eyes. There was a gentle buzz of conversation coming from both the customers with food and those ordering. It was a bustling, busy, noisy little place, and Sena couldn't figure out why Hiruma had come here, especially with the line as long as it was.

Hiruma, in typical Hiruma style, skipped the line entirely and walked straight up to the counter to put in his order. The man at the cash register told him in a level voice in a way a patient parent might tell a child that he had to wait in line like any other customer. A grin broke out across Hiruma's face as he pulled out a small black book.

Moments later he walked away with an extra-large bento without ever exchanging money, leaving the worker at the cash register in tears.

Sena suddenly understood why they'd come here.

But it wasn't where they were going to eat, apparently, as Hiruma kicked him towards the door. "Be useful, fucking chibi," he instructed, and Sena opened the door for him.

They left the bistro and Sena followed Hiruma around until they'd acquired two drinks and a dessert (both free of charge, of course, courtesy of Hiruma), and by then even Sena could see what Hiruma was up to. When they finally stopped at a bench in the middle of a park, Sena had worked up the courage to ask Hiruma the exact nature of their venture.

"Um... Hiruma-san?"

"Mmm?"

Hiruma had gotten the bento open and was busy dividing it into two.

"Are... are we... that is, um," Sena had _thought_ he'd worked up the courage but now it was failing him, "I-Is this..."

The blonde picked up his half and plucked up a piece of sushi with chopsticks.

"Spit it out or eat up, shrimp," Hiruma prompted before tossing the piece of sushi in his mouth.

_'Actually_,' Sena mused as he watched Hiruma eat, '_maybe it's better not to say it out loud._' After all, Hiruma might change his mind about the whole thing. He didn't want the quarterback to get the wrong impression... A small smile crept onto his face as he snapped his chopsticks apart and picked up a slice of sashimi.

They ate in silence a while and Sena's little smile slowly blossomed.

A few minutes into eating, Hiruma snuck a glance at the brat's face and nearly choked on his sushi.

Sena jumped, startled, and offered Hiruma his water, glad that the quarterback hadn't upset his entire bento with the sudden coughing fit.

The remainder of lunch was spent in silence as they ate, sneaking glances at each other when they were sure the other wasn't looking, watching people pass in the park, listening to the various sounds around them. '_It's strange_,' Sena mused as he finished another piece of sushi, '_A lunch with Hiruma is actually very quiet..._' The quarterback hadn't cackled once the entire time, not counting when he'd managed to make the manager of a high-end cafe squeal like a little girl. Sena was beginning to wonder if there was something on Hiruma's mind. The quarterback's gaze darted to where Sena sat on the bench as the runner turned to look at him, and they blinked at each other for a moment, one with his mouth occupied and the other too afraid of saying anything to, well, say anything.

The moment passed and Hiruma swallowed, wiping his mouth on his wrist. "Still hungry, fuckin' shrimp?"

Sena shook his head. "Everything was nice."

"Hn."

Hiruma went about shoving the empty cartons and packaging plastic together, apparently also full. Sena handed the captain his own things and thanked him for the food. "Thanks for lunch, Hiruma-san."

"It's good when you can get food for free," Hiruma commented, a grin breaking out across his face. Sena sweatdropped but nodded. Hiruma handed him the bag of trash and shooed him off in the direction of a receptacle. When Sena returned, the folder had made another appearance. Sena wondered where it had been during lunch; he hadn't seen it the entire time. Hiruma's face was uncharacteristically neutral. The runner hesitated a moment before sitting back down.

"Hey, fuckin' chibi."

"Yeah?"

"How much do you love American Football?"

Sena blinked and sat up straighter on the bench. It wasn't often Hiruma asked him questions like this, so straight-forward and to his face. Usually the captain's queries were buried beneath facades and jokes. It was times like this, when Hiruma wasn't grinning and his cackle was withdrawn, that made Sena feel as though the world would swing in a different direction depending on his reply. It was that same time-slowing sensation that had captured him countless times on the field when there was just seconds left to the play and decisions had to be made. Things would suddenly drag out, as though each second was actually taking a minute to pass. In this case, though, the question didn't require a minute to think about.

Sena knew the answer he would say the instant Hiruma finished asking the question. How much did he love American Football?

"I want to play it for the rest of my life," Sena answered earnestly.

Hiruma nodded. "So do I," the taller boy commented, bringing the folder from the bench to rest on his lap. Sena hadn't been looking at it before, he'd been looking straight at Hiruma; now his gaze diverted to the seemingly innocent folder with a touch of worry. Whatever was in there had brought on this conversation, had brought on the rarely seen serious look Hiruma was wearing now. Curiosity gnawed at Sena as he eyed the folder. What was inside it?

"What's your best time for the 40-yard dash?"

"4.2 seconds," Sena replied, his curiosity compounding. Hiruma already knew that, didn't he?

"Know anyone else who can run that fucking fast?" Hiruma asked, head tilting slightly as his gaze wandered. Sena thought on the question a moment.

"Panther-san can," Sena said confidently, "I'm pretty sure of that."

"Anyone else?" The taller boy was still looking around at nothing in particular. Sena thought about all the players he'd run against in the past. Very few had given him trouble in terms of speed when things were in a pinch-but a few had, he remembered, thinking back to Deimon's struggles with Oujou and Shinryuji.

"Oh-Shin-san. And probably Agon-san, too," Sena said as the captain's sharp gaze finally fixed on him.

"That makes you something special, then, doesn't it? Fucking chibi."

The running back could only nod. His eyes were glued to the folder now. Hiruma was (albeit off-handedly) complimenting him. He was either in an alternate dimension, or Hiruma was making a _point_, and this was something serious, and if Sena hadn't been afraid of the consequences he would've grabbed the folder himself by now and flipped it open to figure out what was in it. His eyes tracked it as Hiruma lifted the folder off his lap and waved it nonchalantly.

"Curious, ain't'cha?"

Sena nodded, spellbound by the innocent-looking folder.

"Wanna know what's inside?"

The running back sat up straighter. Of course he did! Sena nodded again.

Hiruma's grin broadened.

"You **really** wanna know?"

About to nod again, Sena froze to consider what was happening. Hiruma was offering a reward-knowledge-for free.

If _ever_ there was a suspicious thing that Hiruma did, offering a reward without asking for something in return was undeniably atop the list.

Now brown eyes regarded narrowed green ones with suspicion in kind. Did he really want to know that badly? Did he dare ask Hiruma what it would cost to find out? How come whenever Hiruma was involved there were so many things to worry about? Sena chose to barrel on ahead with what usually led him-his gut instinct.

"Yes."

"It'll cost ya."

Sena had known that already. "What?"

Hiruma was the quiet one now, obviously considering what to demand from the younger boy. Sena sweatted minimally for someone in his position and tried to quash the nervousness which grew with the passing silence. Had Hiruma already decided long ago what he was going to demand for the information so he could sit back now and let Sena melt in ignorance and terrified curiosity? That seemed like something Hiruma would have done. The runner groaned internally as images flashed in his mind. Would he have to run three hundred laps? Make his 40 yard dash 4.0 seconds, or less? Dance naked in front of the entire team? He was considering retracting the question when Hiruma made his demands.

"A kiss."

Sena blinked owlishly.

"A kiss?"

"Are you hard of hearing, shrimp?" Hiruma snapped, "That's what I said."

Anyone else would've missed the very faint pink which tipped his captain's unusually pointy ears. Sena was too busy fighting down some pink of his own to truly appreciate having caught Hiruma's. A kiss? That was what the other boy wanted? His eyes darted around in search of hidden cameras and found none.

Hiruma shifting on the bench snapped Sena out of his worried search. The blonde was getting impatient with waiting.

"What? Not _that_ curious?"

He had to be kidding. Sena glanced around. There was no one in the park that he knew and he was practically **dying** of curiosity. "I am," he said quickly, "Er, that curious, I mean."

Hiruma eyed him expectantly.

Now Sena quailed. He was actually expected to... to initiate the kiss? A proper shade of red overtook the slight pink tinge from earlier. Sena had never so much as had the courage to ask for a bathroom break in class, let alone initiate something as intimate as contact with another person (on purpose. He'd been pushed into other people more times than he could count). His hopes of finding out what was in the envelope dissolved. There was no way he'd find the courage to kiss Hiruma outright...

As Hiruma watched the ever-changing shades of red flicker across his runner's face what was left of his patience evaporated and, rolling his eyes, he reached over to the back of Sena's head with one hand and gave the boy a tug.

Sena's eyes widened and his hands fell to either side of Hiruma's right leg to catch himself as he fell. Right into Hiruma's face.

The kiss was long but simple. There was no groping, no twisting tongues, no bubblegum, no moans. Just lips.

When it was done Hiruma's pink tinge had vanished and Sena's ferocious red had absorbed it.

Hiruma's long fingers slid away from the base of Sena's neck. The runner slumped back and took in fresh air. That had been... nice. He wondered if all kisses were that nice. His first one had been too quick, and the one behind the shed had been too hard, but this one had been just right. Some of the red was fading from his cheeks as he wondered if he could die from embarrassment... because he thought it would be nice to have another kiss just like that one. Somewhere in the midst of flushing red and redder, Sena noticed Hiruma was eyeing him with an unreadable expression. Sena swallowed. Wasn't that it? Or had Hiruma not counted it because Sena hadn't started?

Before he could say anything the blonde had the mysterious folder on the bench between them.

"Here."

Hiruma flipped open the folder and extended the paper.

* * *

**End Chapter 7**

**End A/N:** I hope you like cliffhangers. Have one.


	8. Chapter 8

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 8

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers: **None

**A/N:** This chapter was even longer than the last in coming along. I'm sorry it's so late and for leaving you all so long with that nasty cliffhanger. Thank you very much for all your reviews! Please enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter 8**

It was a Friday. Classes were swimming along as normally as they could, considering the considerable overspill from flooded schools in the area. The bell rang for the class before lunch and in the bustle of students leaving their seats for the next class, Suzuna pulled Mamori aside. The older girl gave Suzuna a worried glance, knowing that her friend would only potentially make her late for class in the event that something truly ominous was happening... or going to happen. She waited until the hum of between-class talk had grown to its zenith and then asked, "What is it?"

The girl on her arm was practically _buzzing_ with conspiratorial excitement.

"Sena can't lie or keep a secret to save his life," Suzuna whispered excitedly, "Something _happened_ yesterday."

Mamori's eyes immediately lit with worry and Suzuna quickly shook her head.

"No! Mamo-nee, it's not what you think. He's perfectly alright!"

"Are you sure?" Mamori asked, not wanting to suggest that she doubted Suzuna's examination, but then again, the cheerleader had the tendency to make light of some things which should be taken seriously. Even though the other girl shone like Christmas come early Mamori couldn't help but wonder if something nasty hadn't happened to her childhood friend. Again.

"Hiruma didn't get to him again, did he?"

Suzuna cocked her head to the side. "Elf-bro? What did he do to Sena?"

Mamori glanced around as they moved through the hallway and beckoned Suzuna come closer. The brunette eagerly leaned in, hungry for gossip.

"Well," Mamori began, eyes still sliding side to side in an effort to ensure their somewhat-privacy, "Not long ago, Hiruma was doing some very suspicious things to Sena..."

Stars shone in Suzuna's eyes.

"Yeah? Like? Like?"

The older girl looked around. Suzuna tugged on her arm impatiently.

"Mamo-nee, Hiruma _always_ skips the first two classes to be on the rooftops and plot," she informed Mamori, who looked rather upset that anyone, even a known delinquent like Hiruma, was going out of his way to miss a class, "_Out_ _with it_!"

Mamori nodded and clenched her fist.

"Well..."

Suzuna hung on her every word.

"Well?"

"Well, like... Like making Sena late for class," Mamori whispered confidentially, as though the words would summon the devil himself, "and beating him up behind the shed at lunch."

Suzuna stared. Mamori nodded.

"Sometimes," her voice dropped again, "he drags Sena out of a class for _no reason _and then he comes back dizzy, or at least he seems not to be able to walk a straight line, and he won't tell me what Hiruma does!" She said the last part with a particular offended tone, as though this were the root of all the wrongs in the world.

The cheerleader gaped at her friend in disbelief.

"Late for class," she repeated incredulously after finding her voice, "Beating him up?"

"I _know_!" Mamori hissed indignantly, "And poor Sena just denies everything when I try to talk to him about it-"

"Mamo-nee," Suzuna cut in with a snicker, "I think somehow that that's not the case."

Mamori tried her best not to look worried or discouraged before she remembered that Suzuna had been the one coming to her with news about Sena.

"Oh! Suzuna, what was-"

"Excuse me, ladies," a charming voice cut in from seemingly nowhere, and Kongou Agon offered his most devilish smile to the two startled girls, "But would either of you be heading to English class?"

Mamori nodded. "I am," she volunteered, oblivious to the devious eyes raking down her backside, "Oh! You don't know where the classroom is, do you? Why don't you follow me?"

Suzuna bristled as Agon shouldered his way between her and Mamori and looped an arm casually around the taller girl's shoulder. "Hey, that's sweet of you. I'd be so grateful..."

"Hey," Suzuna cried as she was shoved away from her friend, "You can't just push people around like-"

A hand fell over her mouth and Suzuna jumped in surprise. "Shhh," came a familiar hiss from behind her head, and she suddenly recognized the long fingers over her mouth. Brown eyes shot up, as though to catch a glimpse of her captor through her bangs, but no such glance was forth coming, as her long-armed captor patted her on the head and kept her from chasing Agon to demand justice. She watched as Mamori and Agon slipped seamlessly into the throngs of Deimon High School students. She was dragged without much resistance backwards a few feet and a door was kicked open. Suzuna made half an attempt to get out of the grip as the door shut in front of her, leaving her alone in the unused classroom with the boy at her back.

"Snitching?" came an amused query as her captor finally let her go. Suzuna spun and gave the blonde a pout.

"I was not!"

"Were about to," Hiruma said, waving a finger. "Naughty of you to snitch, when I told Sena not to."

Suzuna pulled a face.

"But... it's not Sena telling, it's me telling." She rocked back and forth on her heels. "Besides, I only know that something's up. I don't even know what secret Sena's hiding..." Her demonic captor didn't look much moved.

"Snitching is snitching," Hiruma warned.

Suzuna pouted. Then, remembering Mamori, she asked, "What about Agon? You saw him, the way he was looking at Mamo-nee. Are you just going to let him-"

Hiruma cocked his head to one side.

"Fucking dreads isn't stupid enough to try pulling some shit on our manager on our home turf. Not so soon, anyway." His gaze was stuck on her. "No snitching."

The brunette gestured to the door, obviously wanting something to be done about what had already taken place.

Hiruma pulled out the black book from his pocket. His eyes never left Suzuna.

"No snitching."

Suzuna correctly assumed that the book was directed at her concern for Mamori... and would be directed at her only if she snitched.

"No snitching," she parroted obediently, hands tucked behind her back to hide her crossed fingers, and Hiruma pocketed the book.

* * *

"Hey, Monta."

The Devil Bat's catcher glanced up from his stretch, keeping his body low to the ground even as his head perked up to look at Kuroki.

"Eh?"

"Does Sena seem a little... weird?" the brunette asked, pulling slowly out of the stretch and moving to start a new set of stretches.

"What'd'you mean?" Monta asked, "Weird?"

"He seems like Sena to me," Yukimitsu offered timidly.

"Doesn't he seem a little..." Kuroki paused to search for the word. "Happy?"

Jumonji snorted. "Last time I checked it wasn't a crime to be happy."

Togano frowned and dipped lower to the ground. "I think something's up. He _has_ been acting a little weird lately."

The men of the Deimon American Football Team turned and glanced at their topic of conversation on the other end of the field. Sena was practicing runs down the field with Mamori charting his times and Hiruma calling out runs. It was true. In the past few days, Sena _did_ seem a little more chipper than usual, even for Sena. The assembled Devil Bats glanced at each other in turn and then refocused on Sena, the logical next question on everyone's mind: what did Sena have to be secretly happy about?

After much manly mulling it over, Togano shrugged and offered a suggestion. "Maybe he has a girlfriend?

Monta's ears plumed with steam. "G-GIRLFRIEND?"

Jumonji shook his head. "Nah, can't be. He's dating Hiruma, remember?"

The team shared a shudder.

"It's blackmail."

"It's got to be blackmail."

"Yeah," Kuroki agreed, "It's definitely gotta be some kind of black mail. Who in their right mind would date Hiruma?"

"Oi," Jumonji said discouragingly, "That's our Captain you're talking about."

"Yeah," Monta stage-whispered, "And he's _on the field_."

Their voices automatically dropped as low as possible. With Hiruma's super-sonic hearing, it didn't really matter how softly they talked, it was possible he might pick up on their conversation anyway. Kuroki continued his previous vein of thought in a righteous whisper-grunt.

"Oh yeah? Well, what the hell's good about the bastard? He's an asshole, he jerks everyone around with that stupid blackmail book, and he's ugly as shit! Who would want to date a guy like that?"

"Hey! That's MAX-disrespectful," Monta hissed as he pulled out of a stretch.

Togano rolled his eyes. "I think he's just jealous."

"Jealous! Of what?"

"Of the fact that Hiruma has someone to date at all. When was the last time _you_ had a girlfriend?"

"Hey! Himiko-chan was a perfect angel!"

Jumonji grinned. "Yeah. You were also both in the second grade."

Togano smirked. "And she dumped you after how long?"

"Two hours on the playground must seem like a _lifetime_."

"ARRRRG-" _**Rapapapapa**_! "ARRRRG!"

Kuroki jumped and gripped the seat of his pants where Hiruma had shot at him.

"For anyone else who doesn't want to practice," Hiruma nearly chirped as he switched magazines for his automatic, "_**Penalty Game**_."

His cackles followed the impressively quick retreat of the other players from that corner of the field.

The blonde waited until the others were making themselves busy with practice to talk again.

"Come to spy on our practice? Fucking dreads."

From behind the practice shed came a snort. "There's nothing to gain from watching you trash run around in circles," Agon sneered as he emerged from his hiding place, "except a few good laughs. That's about all your shit-team is good for."

"Beat it," Hiruma said cheerfully.

Agon did not beat it. Hiruma finished packing more bullets into his second gun and pocketed the first.

"So, _homo_." Agon's grin was off-setting.

Hiruma rose an eyebrow. Kongou Agon didn't make casual conversation. Not with him, or anyone, and probably least of all people in the world those he thought were homosexuals.

"What do you want?"

"Are you in it for kicks or something? Or have you just been pining to take it up the ass all along?" Agon spat in the grass by Hiruma's foot. "Fucking fag."

The blonde didn't feel like arguing the point. But he didn't feel like pulling out his ace, either. He shouldered his gun and watched his pawns scurry about on the field in would-be plays and passes. Agon's insults fell around his ears like wasted ammo shells and when the dark-skinned boy was finally done Hiruma was just about as interested in what he'd said as he would be in wasted shells. He snapped his gum and made no remark back. Agon, used to being paid attention to, even if it was negative attention, snarled and grabbed Hiruma's elbow.

The blonde's eyebrow hiked higher.

"Fucking dreads," he acknowledged.

The dreaded boy had been uncharacteristically interested in Hiruma ever since he'd been forced into close quarters at Deimon with the blonde. Hiruma wondered if this was the culmination of something the other American Football player had been letting boil and froth since the flooding incident. '_I wonder if he's homo for me,' _Hiruma thought with just a touch of egocentricity, _'and now that I'm dating the shrimp he's wildly jealous.'_ He nearly snorted. That would be the day. The idea sounded ridiculous even in Hiruma's head. He restrained himself from rolling his eyes and leveled the other boy with a bored look.

Agon had got fed up with the lack of response or had given up on trying to intimidate the blonde. Whatever the reason, Agon let Hiruma go and spun on heel, muttering about how the evening had been a waste of time, and that the trash team wasn't even fun to watch anyway.

Hiruma went back to shooting off rounds at whoever he thought was slacking most.

Agon walked away plotting.

The blonde hadn't denied his accusations. Hiruma never said he was dating his runner as a joke. He might even _like_ dating the fucking shrimp-trash.

And if ever there was something which made Kongou Agon happy, it was crushing what other people liked.

* * *

"There it is!"

The lazy orange-red rays of the sun lit on the Deimon Devil Bat's cheerleader as she spotted what she'd been searching for. Suzuna beamed happily and plucked the cell phone from between two cabinets. She cheered and spun in a circle.

"Yatta! I knew I wouldn't lose you!"

She kissed the phone and slipped it in her pocket.

"That's the last time I eat lunch on the cabinets."

The door shut behind Suzuna and she stood in an empty hallway. School hadn't been over for long but most the students were gone. This wasn't what troubled the cheerleader. The brunette looked up and down the corridor and pouted.

'_Mou. Sena promised he'd wait up for me. Maybe he's downstairs?_'

She jogged toward the stairs. A few feet away, one of the doors to the classrooms slid open, and Suzuna nearly bowled into three lanky boys. They seemed as surprised to see her as she was to see them.

"Um..." Suzuna began, recovering first, "Do any of you know Kobayakawa Sena? He's on the American Football Team..."

Looking at the boys more closely, she realized their uniforms were different from Deimon's, and began to give a more detailed description. "He's short! And has brown hair! Brown eyes! He's-"

"Really fast?" One of the boys cut in, "Yeah, I think we saw him."

"Oh!" Suzuna lit up. "Where is he?"

"Dunno," one of the other boys shrugged, kicking the classroom door shut behind them, "Probably went home. He took off going pretty fast."

Suzuna gave a little cry of dismay. "But! But he said he was going to wait up for me..."

The boys glanced at her, then at each other. The blonde of the group cleared his throat. "If you need someone to walk home with you..."

Suzuna shook her head. "Thanks, but I'll be good on my own!"

She jogged off to the stairs before they could pressure her further.

Suzuna peeked back at the boys around the door once she had got to the stairs and noticed one of the boys had a metal bat. '_Odd_,' she thought, heading down the stairs, _'I thought High School baseball was played with wooden bats.' _

_

* * *

_

**End Chapter 8**

**End A/N:** There is an unprecedented and rather disconcerting ratio of comments to favorites for this story. I think I have 200+ favorites and not even 100 comments. I would much rather a comment than a favorite, though I'm flattered either way. Please continue to enjoy the story, even if I'm not sure it's worth that much praise. Thank you for your reviews and favorites! It's very motivating to keep writing. c:


	9. Chapter 9

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 9

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers:** I feel like someone has dropped this chapter in a vat of estrogen. But maybe I'm just up too late.

**A/N:** There was a plot element which I introduced last time and, looking back, I feel like it's out of place plot-wise. Certain events have therefore been pushed backwards and others pulled forwards. Not that you'll notice, this is all being put out at about the same pace as an ant pushing a brick through the desert, and for that I'm somewhat sorry. I also apologize for the 'filler' feel to the last chapter but certain things needed to be set up for future events.

With all that babble out of the way, do enjoy the chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 9**

"Sena!"

Jumonji and Yukimitsu laughed as their friend's breath was half-knocked out of him by a flying tackle hug. "Suzuna," Sena greeted wheezily once his rib cage wasn't caught in the younger girl's vice-grip. "Good morning." He offered her a small smile and she beamed back at him. "About yesterday-"

"Don't apologize, silly," Suzuna scolded happily, giving the runner a light rap on his head with the back of her fist, "You came back and met me half way, anyways."

The teacher called for class to begin and Suzuna detached herself from Sena's side to drop into an adjacent seat. Sena had promised to wait up and meet Suzuna so they could walk home together because she wanted to talk to him. When he couldn't find her after the last class, he assumed she'd got home already, sprinted to her house to discover she hadn't made it yet, then sprinted back in hopes to find her along her route home. Luck had smiled upon him yesterday and he had indeed run into the cheerleading captain. It was when they began their short trip back to Suzuna's house that Sena discovered how lucky he was.

****Flashback**

_"There is a catch, of course," Hiruma quite nearly sang as Sena got off the bench. "You can't. Tell. Anyone."_

_"Anyone?" Sena echoed. _

_"Anyone," Hiruma reierated with a broad grin, "For an entire week." _

****End Flashback**

All Suzuna had done on their way back to her house was pester him about what had been in the folder Hiruma kept flashing around. Sena had barely made it to her neighborhood before his willpower wilted and he'd taken off at full tilt in the direction of his own house to keep from giving in and spilling the beans. Sena felt a little bad about rushing off like a cat set on fire but Suzuna seemed to have forgiven him about it. He glanced sidelong at the cheerleader.

_'I can't tell her,'_ Sena thought with a touch of regret, '_She's a great friend, but I'm not sure she would keep it a secret_.'

And some primal gut instinct (or perhaps just months of knowing Hiruma) warned him that letting it leak would cut his life span considerably. Or end in some great public humiliation. Or pain. Or some bizarre and totally possible horrifying combination of all three, since, after all, it **was** Hiruma.

His gaze swept the room. Despite the solid wrench in his gut which told him fervently NOT to, Sena wanted to tell someone. There had to be somebody he could tell. Four days left in the week was four days too many. He disregarded anyone wearing an Oujou uniform on principle that if he told someone in Oujou they would tell someone on the American Football Team and from there... Sena blinked as he spotted who was sitting directly behind him.

Shin!

_'If anyone,'_ Sena thought with creeping confidence, '_Shin-san. He won't tell anyone if I ask him not to.' _

Shin would listen. He had listened to Sena's complaints and insecurities before. Sena entertained the thought that it might be too much to ask of the other American Football player before he made his decision. He picked up his pencil and took notes from the board, knowing that the opportune moment would be near the class's end, about ten minutes before the teacher ended class. Sena let the monotonous drone of the teacher's voice pound away his worries. Hiruma was in class, too, so this was the safest time to tell anyone about it. A smile spread on Sena's face. It was encouraging to think of the news and the circumstances surrounding their delivery. The date. It had only been the one and Hiruma had never mentioned it since but Sena had played it over in his mind several times. It had been... nice. It had felt what Sena assumed a normal date with a girl would feel like. '_Except I would pay for food,_' he reminded himself as he took notes, '_and not make the cashiers cry...'_

A page and a half of notes later and the teacher put up his chalk. "Everyone take out their books," he said, and Sena made his move.

"Shin-san?"

Oujou's number 40 looked up.

"...Sena," the older boy replied, as though he'd had to remind himself that a few days ago he'd been given permission (or had been instructed to, rather) to call Sena by his first name.

"Ah..." Sena found his resolve dissolving a little, now that he was instigating the act, and fished around in his mind for a segue. He put his book up on Shin's desk. "Since you don't go to this school, I thought you might need to share a book!"

Shin cocked his head to the side. He had his own book nestled comfortably beneath another notebook in the backpack on the floor... but Sena looked like he was going out of his way to share, and it really wasn't polite to refuse such a point-blank attempt at being helpful. Shin nodded and leaned in to look at the book's pages.

Sena did one final sweeping glance of the room and turned to nod his own head in close to Shin's.

"Shin-san," he whispered, careful to keep his voice below the teacher's drone, "I was told-"

**BANG**.

Sena nearly jumped out of his seat as the classroom door slammed open. He didn't have time to turn around to see what had happened because he was being hoisted out of his seat and set on his feet. Two large hands pressed against the flat of his back and propelled him against his will to the very front of the classroom, at which point a familiar voice announced, "This one is excused from class for five minutes."

The teacher stared at the two boys in disbelief. "Y-You can't just barge into a classroom and demand to be excused," he informed them.

Sena noticed that the man was a substitute teacher and with a surge of empathetic horror instantly knew what would happen next.

"Oh," the voice from behind him cooed almost hungrily, "_Can't_ I?"

When Hiruma dragged Sena out of the door by the back of his shirt a minute later, the man was huddled in the corner with his lecture plans crumpled in his hands to blot the tears and snot away from his leaking face. He was also wading in a small yellow puddle of pure liquid terror.

The blonde cackled mercilessly as he pocketed his trademark black book and dragged Sena down the hall.

About ten seconds later, Hiruma announced the crime.

"You were going to tell."

The cheerful statement caused Sena to pale. He felt his chances of surviving five minutes alone with Hiruma outside of the classroom plummet.

"W-W-What? What-what are you talking about?" Sena's eyes darted left to right at maximum speed, hoping desperately for someone, anyone, to pass by so he might hopelessly appeal for his life by means of second-party intervention. No such help was forthcoming. Sena felt his luck begin to shrivel and shy quickly back into a fantasy.

"You were going to. It hasn't been a week."

"Why did you make it a week, anyway?" Sena cried in a feeble attempt to distract his captor from the incurred wrong at hand, his voice reaching high enough pitches to make him wonder if it might get stuck one day in that pitch due to his constant state of absolute terror.

Hiruma paused with Sena's shirt in fist and his grin nearly split his face.

"To see if you don't go crazy not telling people, of course," he said, and grabbed both of Sena's shoulders and spun him hard.

Sena wasn't prepared for the centripetal forces to take him and went whirling around the cleared classroom in a blur. Hiruma's cackle and the whoosh of air around him made Sena a bit queasy with anticipation. As the spinning slowed, Sena did a funny step-side-step almost into the room's opposite wall. When his brain wasn't trying to slosh out his ears he felt a hand clap onto one of his own and another steady his waist. His world spun once more before it came to rest at a slant. As the view of the classroom continued to rock to the left a bit, Sena rested against something warm and broad. His senses were still a bit foggy from the spinning so he didn't really register Hiruma's tongue against his teeth at first.

Hiruma pressed the smaller boy's side with one hand and spun once the opposite direction. Sena's world snapped back into focus, the internal swirling of his brain fluids righted, and he sighed into the kiss.

Now there was a warm palm against his hip, fingers busy everywhere, working their way under the green school uniform fabric, folding through his fingers and threading back along the flat of his palm, retreating and retracting and returning to brush the base of his neck. Sena would have sighed again except for the lips on his.

Hiruma pulled back and rose an expectant eyebrow. Sena's face lit up beet red.

"It's just a kiss, fucking chibi."

Sena silently begged to differ as Hiruma leaned in for another.

It wasn't just a kiss. It was a touch at his waist. It was the warmth of being close. It was the way the taller boy pressed him into the wall. It was a palm against his side and a cool uniform pushed aside. It was hands brining their hips together, hands holding him close, hands that knew just what to do with him to make his vision spot with bright colors and stars.

It was that careful dance of tongues in a way that Sena wouldn't end up with a new place for a piercing; for after all that was good and felt very good, it was still Hiruma.

Sena looked down at the floor, effectively cutting the other boy off. Hiruma waited. A few moments later, the brunette looked up again, but still made no move forward. The blonde rolled his eyes.

"So fucking shy," he muttered as he descended upon his runner again.

Sena's mouth was too full of Hiruma's tongue to argue against the fact.

'_Warm_,' Sena thought as he shut his eyes, '_and scary. Just like Hiruma.'_ Even as he thought it Hiruma withdrew from the kiss to press his lips along Sena's cheek and neck. Sena opened his eyes as Hiruma's lips broadened on his shoulder in a smirk, and before he could protest-

"_Hiiiiii~_!"

Hiruma backed off a bit to admire his handiwork. Sena's previous bite marks had all just about faded. He'd just refreshed the one which was most visible even with the uniform on proper.

The runner rose a hand to check for blood when Hiruma caught his shoulders and spun him again. Sena nearly tripped over the tangle their feet had been in but even while fighting the force of Hiruma's spin he managed to keep himself on both feet. While his world was still a blur he heard the door click open and Hiruma's footsteps... and the sloshing of his stomach... He didn't remember later how he'd managed to keep his stomach under control, as Hiruma had kept him spinning the whole way back, cackling all the while. When he was finally re-deposited into his seat after a brief and barely helpful turn in the opposite direction Hiruma was facing Shin pointedly and grinning. Through the dizzy haze Sena saw Shin nod once before Hiruma vanished from the classroom much to the relief of everyone who wasn't Shin or himself. The slamming of the classroom door helped some of Sena's senses return. When he could look at his desk without two or three afterimages of it appearing alongside the original he realized something.

Shin was in this class.

The colors and stars from earlier faded from his vision, as well as the lingering tugs to the left, with that thought. Against his will his mind called up the kiss at the beginning of school and the person jogging through the park when they were on their date.

Shin had been there both times.

A little black tendril of suspicion curled around Sena's gut.

The pointed statements... the public expressions... the very visible bite marks...

Had they all been for show?

Was the only point of all this to keep up his farce with Shin?

As he walked past the sobbing figure in a puddle of his own piss on the way out of class, Sena couldn't help but wonder if everything his captain was doing was for him or for Shin, and why it mattered so much.

* * *

"Are you sick?"

Sena looked up from his sandwich. "No. Why?"

Monta finished his mouthful of banana before replying to his friend's question. "You seem down," he explained, peeling back the bright yellow fruit more, "And all this week you've been in such good spirits, I thought you might've caught a cold or something."

Beside him, Shin reached over and pressed a palm to Sena's forehead. "You don't feel too warm," he said as Sena pulled away with a small smile.

"I'm alright."

"You sure?" Sakuraba asked from his other side as Monta eyed him curiously, "Monta's right, you did seem a lot more cheerful not long ago. Are you sure you're okay?"

Sena gave the three boys a look. They had pushed together all their desks to share lunch. Their eyes shone with concern and they'd even stopped eating momentarily. Sena considered telling them. He knew Sakuraba would be understanding and concerned as a friend, that Monta would defend him loudly and eagerly (as long as Hiruma wasn't actually around), and Shin would nod and listen and be Shin. Sena thought about it for a good long ten seconds. Then he smiled somewhat sadly and shook his head.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm sure..."

Monta shrugged and bit into his banana. Sakuraba nodded and accepted the words for what they were. Shin was the only one who didn't seem to believe him completely and didn't look away. Sena tried not to let the gaze get to him and munched half-heartedly at his sandwich.

When the bell rang to signal the end of lunch Shin took his elbow and made him wait. Sena gave Oujou's linebacker a curious look.

"Shin-san?"

"You know you can tell me what it is," the taller boy said, "What's bothering you."

Sena looked at him for a long moment and then away.

"It's not worth mentioning..."

Shin's hand slipped away from his elbow.

"Your friend's concern is misplaced, then?" Shin asked, in the tone of voice a worried but respectful father might use. Sena shook his head as the small black thing in his gut curled deeper and he forced a small smile.

"It isn't."

He walked away without further explanation and Shin let him.

* * *

On his walks home Sena usually sprinted to skip the scenery or took his time to enjoy the route. It was a familiar path with familiar sights, scents, and sounds, all of which Sena currently shunned to take the walk with his head hung and his thoughts disordered. His shirt was soaked in sweat from practice and his bag was cutting into his shoulder. He barely registered the pavement beneath him as his feet moved mechanically along it. The route he was on was routine and Sena could probably walk it in his sleep. To anyone watching him meander along the road, it probably looked like he _was_ sleep walking.

Somewhere between the beginning of his neighborhood and his house Sena stopped at the base of a tree. He dropped his bags without ceremony on the grass and then did the same with himself. He stretched his muscles, sore from practice, and breathed gently.

The day had been demanding. So had practice. He recalled briefly the two-hundred penalty laps he'd run for being late and winced. That had been what started it all.

_'It was just a misunderstanding, after all,_' Sena thought with a touch of sadness, _'when Shin-san happened by at that time.' _

Of course Hiruma didn't actually want to date him. It made so much more sense now.

Sena lay motionless in the grass for a while just thinking. He didn't like the feeling that Hiruma was just using him. It was different on the field. For American Football, it was the way things worked, and Sena could accept and even enjoy those kind of commands and demands. When Hiruma gave an order, Sena was filled with a new power. Suddenly he could make runs he hadn't thought possible before. Or he could overtake the opposing obstacle via a new run route. When Hiruma gave him an order on the field, it was done, and that was a part of the Deimon Devil Bat's success: Sena's ability to become invincible and do the impossible because Hiruma said he could. Because he said he **had** to. Because Hiruma said so, so it was.

But only on the field.

As much as Sena wanted to tell himself otherwise, it was blindingly obvious to the runner now that Hiruma had done all those things for his own personal gain and little else. Whatever perverse entertainment or amusement which had come along with the territory would have to end because Sena wouldn't put up with it. The runner's shoulders relaxed a bit as he repeated his resolution in his head.

_'Tomorrow I'll ask Hiruma to stop. Tomorrow I'll ask him not to use me anymore unless it's for American Football.'_

He could say that much to Hiruma.

But a very small part of him rather didn't want to.

Sena sat up and leaned back against the thick tree trunk. There were no piles of homework pressing him to be home soon and the few assignments he did have fell away from his mind as he looked up at the sky. No, he didn't really want to tell Hiruma to stop paying so much attention to him. Sena didn't bother to fight the modest pink which accompanied the memories of their kisses. He lost himself slightly in the memory of them. There had been more than one now. There had been the one at school, the one at the park, and the one in the empty classroom. Each had been different, each had been interesting. Each of them had been Hiruma. Now that there had been more than one Sena was sure of the feel of his captain's lips. And, with a jolt of realization, there were lips on his right now, and they weren't at all familiar.

Agon was kissing him.

Or to be more accurate, mashing their faces together like an awkward teenage boy trying to preform CPR on an attractive young girl without actually attempting to save her life.

It was the second unexpected kiss of the day. Sena's mind promptly took a ten second outing to confirm whether or not he'd slipped into some alternate universe in which every frightening figure from American Football was trying to get into his pants.

Then he returned to reality, which, at that point, seemed pretty much the same thing.

Somehow Agon had managed to approach Sena from an angle where he hadn't entered the other boy's peripheral vision and was leaning over him to half-eclipse the sky. One of his hands was wrapped firmly around the base of Sena's neck, the other was fisted against the tree trunk. The taller boy completely dominated Sena's space. And so did his lips dominate Sena's. The kiss wasn't anything like Hiruma's kiss. Sena hadn't expected it to be but he had never expected to be kissed by Agon. The kiss was so completely out of left field that he almost assumed that Hiruma was somewhere. Then a tongue was half-way down his throat and Sena finally realized that _Agon was kissing him_. It was hard and rough and demanding complete compliance whether or not Sena was going to give it. Teeth scraped against his bottom lip and Sena winced in pain.

The little jolt of pain through his body was enough to bring his senses back and he put his palms against Agon's chest and shoved mightily. The dreaded teen was barely moved for all the force Sena put behind the buck but let the runner slip from his grip without much resistance. He leaned back a little so Sena could slump forward and a grin pulled across his features.

"We're dating," Agon announced.

Sena spluttered on a reply, coughing as he sat back up, but still managed to choke out his thoughts. "I-I think t-th-that I should h-have some say..."

Agon turned a withering glare on the shorter boy. Sena's response evaporated on his tongue.

"Whaaaat?"

The younger boy's mouth open and shut with no words forthcoming. He couldn't help it. Cold fear clutched at his throat and he couldn't protest at all. Agon glowered menacingly, as he is so **good** at doing, an instant longer before turning down his soul-shrinking glower to a pompous sneer. "That's what I thought."

Sena did his very good impression of a landed fish.

Agon stood smoothly and grinned at Sena over his shoulder.

"See you tomorrow, shrimp trash."

He gave Sena a look which promised pain if he would protest, which silenced what feeble protests had nearly made it up and out of Sena's throat, and sauntered off. Sena's groan of dismay reached Agon just as he got nearly out of range to hear and his smirk broadened. He was already thinking of what would happen the next day when he told Hiruma.

For a moment, Agon remembered the look on the blonde's face when the fucking trash fat-ass had failed to get into Shinryuuji, and his grin grew.

_'He actually _likes_ dating the shrimp,_' Agon thought with a decidedly evil snicker, _'It makes him _happy_.' _

There was nearly a skip to his step as he walked home.

_'It'll be worth dragging the shrimp trash around for a while to take that away from him again.'_

_

* * *

_**End Chapter 9**

**End A/N:** Remember, this is a Hiruma/Sena fic. Agon will not change this, no matter how hard he tries. I think.

**Rant:** I've given up asking for people to comment instead of just silently favorite this story. For every comment I got on the last chapter, and this probably includes the untold reviews and comments yet to come, I got at least three favorites with no comment whatsoever. Is it that much to ask for? I want your opinion of the story, whether you think it's good, bad, backwards or the best piece of shit you've seen all day. I realize that I should be thankful anyone reads this crap at all but I would really really appreciate more of what I'm being given. **/rant** That said, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed. I have a handful of regulars, much love to them (you know who you are), and see you next chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 10

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena.

**Warnings/Spoilers:** None

**A/N:** Thank you for all the reviews. I'm stumped, humbled, and I won't ask for them anymore. Things which were being set up will start to pick up. I've never planned out my stories like this before so it's a bit of an experiment. Sorry if you see it coming a mile away, subtlety wasn't in my vocabulary until recently and it's still rather new. While I try to figure out how it works I'm going to beat you over the head with some awful humor. Please enjoy the chapter, and Happy New Year.

* * *

**Chapter 10**

Sena rummaged through his backpack with one hand and brushed his teeth with the other. Notebooks, check. Pencil, check. Paper, folders, erasers, check, check, check. He flipped the top of his pack shut and jogged over to the bathroom to spit and rinse. He'd woken up early enough to take things slow for once and was making sure he had everything before he dashed off. Of course, it was but a minute's work to sprint back home and grab whatever he was missing, but he had cut it close yesterday and he didn't want to be late again.

As he ran along the road he glanced around and smiled at what he saw. Or who, rather.

"Shin-san," he called, waving an arm.

The American Football player glanced up from the path he'd been jogging and nodded once in Sena's direction. A building eclipsed the view between the two boys and Sena went back to paying attention to the road.

When the building passed, the sound of footsteps on pavement had doubled.

"Sena."

Eyeshield 21 smiled.

"Do you always take this route to school?"

"Ever since the incident I have had to alter my path."

Sena's face twisted in confusion. Shin's face didn't give any hints. It took the running back a couple more beats to remember that Shin was on the way to Deimon, not Oujou, and it clicked.

"Oh yeah! I mean, um, I'm sorry about-your school-"

"It isn't your fault," Shin said as they cut back their pace, having made it to Deimon's front side, "It was Ootogowara's."

Sena blinked. "Hmm?"

But the bell for classes tolled and Shin nodded curtly before heading off in the direction of his class. Sena waved as Shin disappeared into the crowd of other Deimon students, wondering. _'Huh. Come to think of it, no one ever _really_ explained how the schools all flooded.'_

_

* * *

_

As it turned out, Sena didn't have to be curious for long.

Sakuraba blushed in embarrassment and shook his head. "This story again? But we're at lunch."

Sena and Monta leaned in, eyes shining eagerly despite the clear protest on Sakuraba's face.

"But no one's told us anything," Sena insisted, "And it's your school."

"We HAVE to know what happened!" Monta agreed, jumping up and nearly upsetting his bento as he brandished a banana.

The tall boy sweatdropped.

"He must have gotten really angry at someone," Monta suggested, "and took it out on the pipes!"

He twisted the banana in his hands to mime it out. The yellow fruit flesh squished out of the peel and went everywhere.

"_Waah_!"

"Monta!"

"My jacket..."

"My lunch!"

Sena brushed himself off with a napkin as Sakuraba mournfully attempted to fish out some thick globs of has-been-banana from a tuna salad sandwich. Once some semblance or order had been restored Monta and Sena returned their attentions to the origins of Oujou's temporary closing.

"So," Sena asked, "Did Ootogowara-san really bend the pipes and stop up all the water?"

The taller teen shook his head, unknowingly dislodging some yellow goop from his hair, "You know, it wasn't such a thing at all."

Monta and Sena gave each other disbelieving looks.

"But something had to have destroyed the pipes," Monta argued, "and who else is strong enough to do that?"

"Shin-san even said it was his fault," Sena added triumphantly. Sakuraba smiled and shook his head.

"Ootogowara is certainly capable of such a feat of strength, but actually, that isn't what happened this time."

"Oowah! I'm going bananas with curiosity!" Monta shouted, jumping up and down and throwing down his empty banana peel to punctuate the thought, "Tell us what happened!"

Sakuraba chuckled and, Sena and Monta on the edge of the lunch table bench, revealed at long last the truth.

"It was a normal day," Sakuraba recalled, "Ootogowara was eating with us, a bento his girlfriend had made him."

Monta 'oooh'-ed appreciatively, "He has a girlfriend?"

"Monta!"

"Anyway," Sakuraba said with a smile and good humor, "We were all eating and Ootogowara was bragging about how his girl made the best bento. It was pretty big-"

_"Makes sense, right, he's a big guy-"_

_"Monta!"_

_"Sorry!"_

"-but he finished it all without a problem. That's the kind of guy he is."

He paused to frown and discard a bit of tuna which had married some of Monta's banana.

"What happened next," Sena demanded.

"Well," Sakuraba admitted, trying another corner of his sandwich, "It didn't happen for two more class periods, actually. But whatever Ootogowara's girl made decided not to agree with him."

He bit into his sandwich and was rewarded with banana-less tuna.

"You mean," Sena began, eyes big in disbelief.

"I mean," Sakuraba said around his sandwich, "Ootogowara's shit stopped the pipes. The facilities at Oujou are being removed completely and will probably be sent to a nuclear waste disposal site. We'll have new toilets by next Sunday."

Monta beat his chest proudly. "When a man does something, he does it to the MAX!"

Sena groaned. "I don't ever want to shit to the max."

Monta clapped a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's okay," he assured the other boy, "One day... We, too, will become men."

"Taking dumps massive enough to stop the water supply makes you a man?" Sakuraba asked before choking on a traitorous clump of tuna-colored banana goop.

* * *

Another bell rang and the day was over for most students. Sena watched as his classmates filed out, stretching limbs stiff from sitting, laughing at their impending freedom, and smiled. There was a time when he'd be one of them, school bag swiftly shoved together and jacket thrown on over both shoulders, face bright with anticipation for the free afternoon ahead. But now he turned back down the hall and headed deeper into the school for American Football practice.

When he got down to the field he dropped his bag in the same general location the others had deposited their school things in favor for practice gear. Half the team was already donning their red and white uniforms, the other half was in the process of donning them when Sena waved and made his way over.

The brunette took a glance around and started undoing the buttons to his uniform.

"Musashi-kun," he said as he shrugged off the green jacket, "Still nothing?"

The kicker shook his head as he fastened a kneepad.

Sena finished dressing with the rest of the team and nodded once everyone had geared up. "Alright. Mamori-san is helping to proctor an after-school make-up exam in one of her classes today, so I'm going to oversee practice. Everyone should already know what to do but if you have any questions I have Mamori's notes."

Monta's hand shot into the air. Sena sweatdropped. "Yes?"

"Where's Hiruma?"

Somewhere in a dimly-lit room filled with rope, two open blueberry jam jars, and a set of sixteen lit sticks of dynamite, amidst the terrified whimpers of truly unfortunate souls, Hiruma Youichi sneezed.

"He said something about taking the day to..."

Sena fished around a moment in his mind for the word his Captain had texted him when he'd dared to wonder why Hiruma wasn't in classes earlier.

"Recruit."

No one had any questions after that.

* * *

Sena jogged to the sidelines after a particularly fun skirmish. He took off his helmet and shook the sweat from his bangs. Practice was long and hard even without Hiruma.

Even when the devil was away, there was no rest for the Devil Bats.

"Hey Sena."

"Musashi-kun," Sena said, wiping his brow with the back of his hand, "How does it look?"

"The boys are doing good," the kicker observed with a rare smile, "practice is going well."

Sena let out a big sigh and melted a little against the bench. "I'm glad," he revealed as he accepted a water bottle from his teammate, "Hiruma-san would be angry with us if practice didn't meet his standards."

"Demonic standards," Musashi chuckled, "He has us running three times what other teams go through."

"Maybe." Sena smiled. "It's Hiruma, after all."

The man beside him nodded. "Yeah."

Sena watched his teammates line up again for another practice scrimmage.

"Hey, Sena?"

"Hm?"

"Are you doin' okay?"

Sena blinked and looked away from the play as Kurita hiked the ball. "Eh? What do you mean?"

"Today," Musashi began, "Agon-san was-"

"Aa."

Sena knew what Musashi was referring to. Agon had been shadowing him the entire day. Sena had checked his backpack during one class to make sure there wasn't a football stuffed under his books that the other boy thought he had. The brunette's grip on his helmet tightened as he reviewed the day in general. Hiruma hadn't been around to defend his honor and surprisingly he wasn't missed. Agon kept mostly to the shadows (Hiruma tended to go the more direct route and just do whatever he pleased) and had managed to invade pretty much every bit of Sena's day. He had shown up in classes Sena knew they didn't share and had just taken up residence in the rear rows to the dismay and horror of some teachers. At lunch he had taken the trouble of convincing the two bustiest second-year girls to sit at a lunch bench two over from where Sakuraba told Sena and Monta the story about Ootogowara. And before he left for practice Sena had seen Agon creeping from another classroom.

He hadn't approached Sena at all but Sena had felt his gaze all day. It was impossible not to.

In a way Agon's creeping had got under Sena's skin even more successfully than Hiruma's explosive interruptions to his day. The suggestion of the other player's presences in the corner of his mind cropped up doubt. Sena knew that there were too many thoughts crammed into his head now to sort them all out. They weren't even questions, like why was Agon suddenly everywhere he was, whether Hiruma was serious about them dating or not. It didn't make sense to ask for the why, since things were already they way they were, and so Sena was busy thinking about the what. What was in his day.

Or maybe 'who' was better.

Maybe Hiruma did want to date him, and maybe Agon just wanted to make him jealous.

Or maybe Hiruma was using him to keep up appearances with Shin, and somehow, for whatever reason, Agon wanted to date him.

Or maybe **none** of it was real, and Sena was still laid out in the field a few days ago in a colorful sea of two-hundred-lap delirious exhaustion with Hiruma's tutu-donning dog.

Maybe.

Musashi was refastening his helmet together when Sena realized he'd cut the other boy off without offering any kind of explanation or excuse. He waited to see what the kicker would say, eyes lowered and hesitant.

"If he becomes a problem for you," the older boy's voice told Sena firmly, "don't be afraid to ask for help."

Sena only let himself look surprised for a moment before smiling.

"Thank you."

They left the side of the field to join the others for one last practice run.

* * *

**End Chapter 10**

**End A/N:** A little shorter than I'd like but a bit of necessary plot development and some humor (I think) as a holiday treat. Thanks for reading and see you in the new year.


	11. Chapter 11

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 11

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers:** There will be a LOT of you disappointed when Sena finally gets around to revealing in that folder I've been taunting you all with for what... 4 chapters? Anyway it's been a long time in coming (sort of) so here we go.

**A/N:** I'm up at another odd hour of the night and instead of getting some solid sleep for myself I selflessly thought you all might like an update.

* * *

**Chapter 11**

Sena suddenly found himself up to his eyeballs in the sensation of being dropped right into an American-style Western shootout film.

You know, the kind that's featured in a dusty one-road town where two menacing dudes stand at opposing ends of the same single road looking gritty and determined with legs lazily shoulder-width apart and fingers curling at holster-height; the kind that if you put a frame around it would be the epitome of classic Western show-down shoot-out drama?

Yeah, that kind.

It happened midday that Sena had finished taking notes for class and had volunteered (volunteered, no less!) to take a note to another classroom, leaving the marginal comfort and security of the classroom setting for the untold dangers of the wide-open halls of Deimon High.

It also happened around midday that one delinquent twin with a superior sneer and someone else's appropriated soda was making his way down a corridor which eventually met up with the hallway Sena was on.

And least fortunate of all was that around midday a certain blonde America-Football loving tyrant got the whimsical urge to momentarily delay scheming in favor for a detour to the cafeteria to see what there was to steal for nibbles and took a corridor that also led to the hallway Sena was walking down at the same time.

Sena wasn't sure who was more surprised to see who when they eventually emerged simultaneously both about a classroom's length away from Sena on either side.

He did remember that they started glaring at the same time.

It was like being in the middle of two oppositely charged electrodes.

"Fucking dreads."

"Blonde trash."

The words were less like greetings and more like warning shots.

Sena wondered briefly why his legs weren't registering his mental signals to _run far far away right now as fast as he could_.

On either side of him small black holes of chaotic energy seemed to swirl around either teenager in what was certainly a parallel universe ripped open by the mutual hatred and annoyance stretching across Agon and Hiruma's faces. Sena could almost _see_ the outline of what was either hatred or fury rolling up and off their skin like heat waves in the summer.

One of the things still intact from Sena's less savory years as a class grunt was his survival instincts. He swallowed a thick lump and consulted with his legs again. He tried not to collapse in relief when his feet registered what his brain was wailing and took a single tentative step sideways.

And on that cue suddenly both of his elbows were occupied by different hands.

Agon had an iron grip around his left elbow while his right was in a steel vice belonging to his captain. Both American Football players had crossed the entire length of an unoccupied classroom in the space of Sena's single step to the side and were now exchanging the full volume of their harrowing glares a mere two feet apart. And Sena was inescapably clamped between the two of them.

Sena promised never to volunteer to leave the classroom ever again.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing," Agon hissed, giving Sena a tug in his direction, apparently attempting to drag the boy out of Hiruma's grip and pull him aside.

The move would've been successful if Hiruma hadn't counter-pulled at the exact same instant, a cool look of indifference having smothered the raw heat of his anger.

"Dunno what the fuck _you're_ doing," Hiruma said levelly, "but I'm taking my boyfriend back to class."

Sena winced.

But that was probably because both boys had decided to increase the gage on their vice-grips around his elbows, nothing to do with the hiccup in his chest.

Probably.

"Dunno what you're talking about," Agon drawled back, his sneer firmly back in place across his face, "Sena's been dating ME for two days."

Sena's eyes widened and darted to his captain, rightfully fearful of some type of explosion, from a firearm or otherwise.

He would later firmly tell himself that he had imagined that pang of hurt that Hiruma didn't immediately look completely incensed by this admission alone and was regarding Agon with the bored cool tones of someone who truly didn't care.

"You've lost it," Hiruma informed the other boy smoothly, "Fucking dreads. Now let Sena go."

He tugged on the boy's elbow hard enough to hurt. Sena winced and opened his mouth to protest when he was tugged just as sharply in the opposite direction.

"Don't think so. He's _mine_."

Hiruma had no reply to that but to tug harder on the brunette's arm.

Agon pulled back.

Hiruma put his other unoccupied hand around the upper portion of Sena's arm.

Agon's sneer broadened as he gave another tug; his upper arm strength would always outmatch that of the stick-like quarterback across from him, exemplified by the fact that while Hiruma now had to pull with two arms to rival Agon, Agon could still pull to match the blonde with the same arm that wasn't holding his pilfered soda.

"Ow," Sena muttered despite himself.

"Let go," Hiruma warned, his voice dropping somewhere just above arctic.

The taller teen laughed and gave Sena's arm a harder pull in his direction.

"Why don't you _make_ me?" Agon jeered.

"Let. Go."

And that was the drop below arctic.

Agon paused and grinned wickedly. "Maybe the shrimp trash doesn't want me to."

"Why the hell wouldn't he want you to **let go of him**?"

"Maybe because he doesn't **want **to go with you?"

"He sure as fuck doesn't want to go with _you_," Hiruma hissed.

"Why don't we ask the fucking shrimp trash and see who's _right_?" Agon hissed back.

The two boys then glanced down at their empty hands.

"What the-"

"What-"

About two classroom lengths away, Sena was rubbing his arms as a large hand on the flat of his back steered him gently away from the impending eruptions.

"Now I know how a football feels," the runner mused somewhat miserably as the two disappeared around a corner. "Thanks, Shin-san."

The taller boy just nodded.

**

* * *

**

"Thank you very much, Kobayakawa-san."

"Welcome," Sena mumbled as he dropped in a respectful half-bow before turning and rejoining Shin in the hallways. The classroom door shut behind him and the two Football players started off walking in the same direction.

Sena was thankful for Shin's silence as they walked for a while down Deimon's hallways. Then, in typical Shin-fashion, the Oujou player asked for an estimate of the damage. The younger teen stopped massaging his biceps for a moment and flexed and winced. Shin nodded.

"It would be wise to exercise cautiously," he said as he reached for the tender limb closest to him, "But use your arms for what feels comfortable. Not using them will result in a needlessly painful prolonged recovery period."

The shorter boy nodded mutely as Shin tested the regions of his biceps, triceps, even briefly pressing against his deltoids. Everywhere the tissue was sore, probably not bruise-deep, but his left arm was significantly more tender than his right. Something about how firm Agon's grip was and how Hiruma's was still as fierce but not as death-grip-tight, something Sena wasn't sure how to feel about yet.

"Actually," he said out loud, "I _do_ know how I feel. Shin-san, can I ask a favor?"

**

* * *

**

"So," Monta said as he peeled back the top of his bento, "tell us what it is already!"

Sena swung his legs from where he sat on top of the filing cabinets with Suzuna, who, at his side, was cheekily grinning at the other members of the Deimon Devil Bats. He had rounded up everyone he could find on such short notice, what, having made the decision to spill the beans just ten minutes ago, in one of the spare classrooms students generally ate lunch in. It was close to the cafeteria and halfway to the best vending machines on campus.

"Actually, I'm kinda curious, too," Juumonji admitted as he plucked Togano's juice from the desk, "even though I just learned you had a big secret."

"Oi, my juice!"

Yuki smiled meekly even as he pulled his own drink closer. Suzuna giggled from her spot atop the cabinets as Sena pulled out the vanilla folder form his backpack.

The others stopped bickering to give the appropriate dramatic pause.

Sena took a deep breath.

He put his palm down and slipped his thumb under the lip of the folder-

"Sena, you're killing us!" Monta wailed.

The runner grinned sheepishly and without further ceremony flipped the folder open for the others to see.

Seven pairs of eyes fixed onto the small print and scanned down the page greedily until they got to the words "American Football Scholarship".

And _then_ there was a small explosion.

"YA-_HA_!"

Sena's heart nearly jumped out of his throat before his brain could register that the cry had been several octaves too high to be Hiruma's.

Beside him, Suzuna was clapping and kicking excitedly, and then Togano and Kuroki hauled him off the cabinet to toss him into the air.

"Uwaaah!"

"Sena, you lucky bastard!"

"You unbelievable twerp! I can't believe it!"

"Congratulations!"

In mid-air, Sena considered the strange reality that was his life where boys two times his weight were tossing him up in the air to congratulate him instead of to triple the distance between him and the ground so it might hurt more when he plummeted down.

"Wow, that's really cool," Yuki was saying as some of the other students came over to investigate.

"What's so cool?" asked a braver soul than the others, getting close enough to the commotion to make himself heard over the applause, cheers, and roars of approval Sena was getting from the team. Yuki stopped clapping and gestured to Sena.

"Our running back for American Football has earned a fully-paid scholarship to a prestigious college in America!"

"Woah," the other boy said after a while, "Sounds cool."

"Not only that," Monta put in, waving the folder and its contents in either hand, "It says he's been offered a spot in Team USA!"

Juumonji spat out Togano's juice.

"No _way_!"

"You bastard, my juice!"

"He what?" asked the other boy, eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"It's like this," Yuki explained as Monta scampered off to help Kuroki throw Sena again, "There are different American Football teams that can compete on a national level-"

_"Suzuna, lend a hand!"_

_"Okay!" _

_"Huh? Wait, I-"_

"-and Team USA is one of those teams. The scholarship Kobayakawa-san earned-"

_"Ready?"_

_"Monta, wait, I don't think-"_

_"One, two, three, toss MAX!"_

"-also includes a guaranteed position-"

_"Uwaaaaah!"_

_CRASH._

_"Suzuna, you were supposed to help us _catch_ him, too!" _

_"Oops?"_

"-on Team USA!"

The other boy blinked owlishly at Yuki for a moment before offering a grin. "Cool."

"Cool? More like AWESOME!" Monta announced, "It's a once in a lifetime chance!"

"Congratulations, Sena," Juumonji said as he helped haul the runner to his feet. Sena smiled, dusting off his pants, and assured Suzuna that really he was fine. The commotion was dying down when Sena spotted a familiar face in the classroom doorway and dropped down off the filing cabinets to meet up with him.

"Thanks again, Shin-san," Sena began.

"Actually," the other American Football player spoke up, "I wasn't able to find either of them."

Worry registered on Sena's brow right before it flickered into fear. His eyes did an impressive back and forth scan of the area behind Shin and then what little of the hallway he could make out around the taller boy's silhouette. Shin obligingly stepped out of the way to let Sena frantically search the remainder of the hallway with a terrified scan before inclining his head in amusement.

"Do you want to find them?"

Sena's eyes stopped scanning frantically and instead stared at Shin.

"Then don't look so hard."

Sena stared some more.

Shin tilted his head slightly and offered to keep an eye out anyway and left. Sena stood in the doorway doing his very good impression of a landed fish for a few moments and then Suzuna dragged him backwards away from the doorframe. Eventually the bell for class rang and the students flooded out of the room to get to their next classes and Sena was relieved and surprised that the rest of the day passed without incident right up until the point when the bell rang for classes to end. He didn't wonder about where Hiruma or Agon had disappeared off to. Knowing the two delinquents, it wasn't strange that they had been absent for the rest of the day.

Sena only hoped, as he headed to meet up with Suzuna so they could walk home together, that when he met one of them that the other wasn't there. Over exposure to the kind of cataclysmic energies exchanged between Hiruma and Agon whenever they met had got to be potentially life-threatening.

**

* * *

**

"There it is!"

The lazy orange-red rays of the sun lit on the Deimon Devil Bat's cheerleader as she spotted what she'd been searching for. Suzuna beamed happily and plucked the cell phone from between two cabinets. She cheered and spun in a circle.

"_Yatta_! I _knew_ I wouldn't lose you!"

She kissed the phone and slipped it in her pocket.

"I swear, for real, that's the _last_ time I eat lunch on the cabinets."

Suzuna let herself out of the classroom quickly enough to not hear the footsteps just outside and found herself sitting on the floor after a very brief and uncomfortable introduction to someone's side. "Oooh..."

As she sat up rubbing her head she noticed a hand in her field of vision. "Hey, you okay?"

"Um," Suzuna blinked as she took the hand, "Yeah, I think so. Nothing's broken but my butt."

"Oh, crap," one of the other boys said, "Which way was the infirmary in this school?"

Suzuna shook her head once she had gotten to her feet. "No! No, it's a saying, see? I'm fine!"

She even spun a full circle to prove her balance and motor skills were still intact.

The figure who'd helped her up (and who she'd probably mauled coming out of the classroom so fast) was offering a cheesy smile-grin-expression that was half awkward and half even more awkward. Suzuna decided it was time to leg it outta there.

"Well, thanks for the hand," Suzuna said, doing a half turn to head towards the stairs.

"Hey," one of the boys from behind her called, "What's the big hurry? You just ran into us-"

"Sorry! My friend's waiting for me," Suzuna called as she finished power skipping down the hall to the stairs.

The trio pulled similar sulks and turned to go back the way they'd come as Suzuna waved cheekily to their retreating backs.

It was only halfway down the stairs that Suzuna paused with a strange sense of de ja vu.

'_Weird_,' she thought as she headed down the stairs, _'I swear I've seen those guys before.'_

**

* * *

**

**End Chapter 11**

**

* * *

**

**End A/N:** Chapter after next is a clean break from whatever you thought was going to happen. It may seem rather jarring but I promise things will eventually come full circle. Thank you again for all the reviews. Not sure if I deserve them at the pace I update at, slightly slower than a glacier retreating, but thanks anyway.


	12. Chapter 12

**Title:** Story at 2:48 AM

**Chapter:** 12

**Manga: **Eyeshield 21

**Pairing:** Hiruma/Sena

**Warnings/Spoilers:** Bit o' violence in this one.

**A/N:** The most I've written in a while, to make up for the wait. Probably bursting with flaws. Excuse the confusing format. Please enjoy the chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**Present**

Flowers looked better in the morning light.

It was something about the brightness of a fresh morning, maybe the way the dew gathered here and there upon petals, or perhaps it went even deeper than that. Whatever the reason, flowers seemed to look better in the morning then they did in the afternoon.

Even knowing this, Musashi waited until the school day was through to buy some new flowers. The kindly old ladies at the shop spoke to him briskly at first, cautious of his wild hair and size, but were blushing prettily and sighing to themselves when he left their store. The old birds quickly took to whispering amongst each other (despite the fact that the young man was already on his motorcycle and speeding down the streets away from their shop) about who the flowers were for and what a lucky girl she was.

It was a reasonable assumption, wrong though it was, that the flowers were for a girl.

The ride from the flower shop was short. Musashi took his helmet in with him and waved at the receptionist. The young woman nodded and apologetically asked to see his ID card.

"Again?" Musashi said with a smile, "You know me well enough around here."

"Unfortunately. Did you bring those flowers just for me?" she asked jokingly as the tall teen handed over his license for the second time that week.

"Not this time, Misato-san," the kicker said with a small smile. "They're for..."

"Oh!" The brunette interrupted him briefly, "Sorry, I just remembered, they've moved him. Room 6021; sixth floor, room twenty-one."

Musashi cringed internally at the coincidence.

"Thank you," he said as Misato good-naturedly slid his ID back across the table top.

Instead of taking the elevator Musashi took the stairs. Six flights barely gave him breathing space to think. Or not to think. Did he want to think? He'd think about it later, he was already at the door to the room. Shouldering the flowers, Musashi turned the door handle with care, hoping not to wake...

"Come in," monotoned a familiar voice from inside.

The taller boy did so.

The room was small, as hospital rooms tended to be.

"Just put them somewhere," the bed's occupant said flippantly, "Quietly."

Musashi did so.

Then he stood by the door, unsure of whether to stay or to go, and unable to tell from the look on the blonde's face.

"Well?"

Hiruma gestured vaguely to one of the free seats at the foot of or on the side of the bed.

"Pick one an' sit. Unless you gotta go an' visit the old man today?"

"Not today," Musashi took a seat and looked at the boy on the hospital bed.

"Hiruma."

The blonde was busy being quiet for once.

Musashi took a moment to let him. As he took in the gentle sounds of their slow breathing, the memories of how they'd come to be like this tumbled in front of him.

* * *

**12:16 am**

BZZZZ.

Musashi blinked on eye open.

The dim red digits across his bedside alarm clock were nowhere near late enough into a Saturday morning to warrant being called. Hiruma had run them into the ground last night because their star runner hadn't shown up to practice.

It wasn't even a matter of friendship or camaraderie; it was that someone had _dared_ to ditch and not only that, but the someone in question was the Captain's _boyfriend_. Musashi had gone to sleep last night wondering if it wasn't just after school training but torture they'd just gone through.

In either case the kicker was still overwhelmed by the strenuous activities of less than five hours ago so he'd let the phone ring, consequences be damned.

BZZZZ.

Unless it was Hiruma.

BZZZZ.

Musashi rolled over in his bed, knowing he had only seconds left before last ring. Of course it was going to be Hiruma, he thought as he weighed his options. No one else had reason to call him and no one from the team would be awake at this hour besides the demonic Captain.

He stared hard at the device vibrating on the bedside desk and tried briefly to convince himself that he wasn't going to pick up.

BZZZZ.

Musashi plucked the phone from his bedside stand and grumbled to himself when he read the caller ID.

BZZZ-

"Hiruma?"

_"How long will it take you to get to the practice field?"_

Musashi wanted to throw the phone across the room. But then again, he liked living.

"Hiruma."

_"How long-"_

"Twenty minutes," Musashi offered amiably as he shook off sleep, wondering which gods he had offended to bring Hiruma down upon him twice in the same 12 hour period. He was pulling on socks as he began to ask, "Why do I need to be-"

_"Can you be here any faster?"_

The world stopped.

There was something that didn't belong in Hiruma's voice that had just come over the phone and sliced Musashi's grumbling into oblivion. He had hoped to never hear that sliver of emotion over a phone call ever and cursed under his breath as he abandoned dressing to grab his keys and head for the door.

"I'll be there in five. Should I bring anything?"

_"Just get here." _Musashi was getting ready to put on his helmet when Hiruma's voice cut back,_ "No. Wait. Truck."_

"Huh?"

_"Not your bike, drive your truck. We need the space."_

The worry compounded as Musashi switched vehicles.

"...'We'?"

He shut the door and turned the key.

_"How much longer?"_

Hiruma's voice was strangely quiet, or maybe the roar of the truck was louder than usual.

"That's the engine. What's going on?"

There was enough of a pause between Hiruma's reply that Musashi almost thought the call had been dropped. By the time anything came over the static silence he was three blocks closer to the field.

_"I need your truck here. Now."_

"I'm halfway there."

He wasn't sure who he was reassuring, himself or Hiruma, and wondering still why either of them needed it.

_"Good." _

"Hiruma-"

* * *

**Present**

"You called."

Hiruma looked up from the sheets of the bed. "I did call."

"You never told me why you needed me," Musashi accused half-heartedly.

"Didn't need to," Hiruma grunted, "You came."

Musashi smiled. "I did come."

* * *

**12:02 am**

Why did he do it?

The rain had been coming down for so long that the grass was almost green again.

Shin was breathing with his mouth open because breathing through your nose in this kind of rain just resulted in lots of coughing and spluttering while your lungs tried to remind you that they preferred air to water. He was breathing and standing upright and rooted to exactly where he was when he'd done it.

And he was trying hard to remember why he'd done it. Why was important. Shin shut his eyes for a moment to try and see, to recall.

There had been blood on his hands.

At his side someone was saying something but the wind howled, tore the soft words from the air and scattered them as an unimaginable weight crashed into his conscience. But Shin's eyes were still shut and he was reaching into the past.

There had been blood on his hands and he had been reaching out.

Fingers pressed into his arm, then a hand clenched at his shirt, the voice trying again against the wind to reach him.

There had been blood and he had seen red.

"Shin-san!"

Everything was still muted by the deluge. His name sounded foreign on the other teen's lips.

Not far away a third teen was lying crumpled on the ground with three broken ribs, unconscious from blunt force trauma. And Shin knew without looking that the marks on the boy's face would match the grooves of Shin's own hand. He stood in the rain with someone's fist clenched against the leg of his pants, why were they down there, with his mouth open to breathe without choking, with his eyes clenched shut for just a moment, just a second, while he thought.

He tried to remember why he'd done it as he knelt and the other teen crawled into his arms, calling his name, trying to reach him.

He tried to think back, tried to see it happen slowly-

* * *

**Present**

"You said someone had been hurt, needed to get to a hospital."

Hiruma nodded. "I did."

"You gonna tell me the whole story now?"

* * *

**12:05 am**

He'd stood in the rain for a good long minute. Considering.

There were a lot of new emotions erupting into existence, things he hadn't considered feeling before appearing unbidden, some of them unwelcome, most of them new, but there they were and now he had to deal with them.

Shock was easy to bury because he was practiced at it. Can't formulate a unique winning strategy while you were stuck in shock.

Confusion was swept away by the same practiced tide.

The other two emotions were less easily dealt with, since they weren't as common to Hiruma, and so he took a moment to study and categorize the reactions so he could better deal with them if ever they presented themselves as obstacles on the field.

Hiruma wasn't unfamiliar with rejection.

In fact, Hiruma knew rejection in a different sense than most people. Rejection was, to Yoichi Hiruma, a challenge.

At its basest level rejection was denial. And being who he was, Hiruma was denied little in his life. The little that he was denied to him, like, say... being denied his request to form an American Football team when he'd expressly wanted to? Things like that were easily obtained. Rejection usually acted as a setback, and setbacks simply meant getting where he wanted to a little slower. Sometimes Hiruma even relished the challenge for the extra effort spent to achieve his goals simply made winning all the sweeter.

Hiruma was no stranger to rejection. One might even say they were on good terms, so to speak. They didn't come in contact with each other often but Hiruma had never really truly been blighted by rejection, and he knew he could deal with it if ever he had to.

Shock didn't stop him.

Confusion didn't send him off course.

Rejection didn't hurt.

But _betrayal_ cut like razor wire.

Hiruma wondered briefly if the rain would ever let up.

The weak arguments that he should've expected it or he should've seen it coming were also filleted into fine dust.

It was something he barely recognized because no one, _no one_ betrayed Hiruma. (If you stayed in it long enough you began to realize that rain actually had a smell.) Rejected, certainly, as much as they could to a safe (sane) degree, but Hiruma could count on one finger the number of times he had been betrayed. The first reaction was sharp but fleeting anger, directed partially at himself for the miscalculation, partially at the guilty party. It was fleeting because the tendrils of fury hardly had time to brush up against his mind before the plotting began.

Or it would have begun at this point.

_'This must be that 'one in a million' case,' _Hiruma concluded as the sharp spike of anger shrank back. There was enough water in his shoes to fill a water bottle. His eyes were fixed to a point across the street underneath a tree. He categorized the reaction and filed it away, turning everything over in his mind and analyzing it because that was who Hiruma was. Brief confusion and shock, rejection. Fine. He could deal with those. And the last.

_This is the second time he's made me draw a blank, _Hiruma realized blandly_._

He tried to focus on being annoyed to ignore the crumbling feeling.

After all.

Sena looked comfortable where he was, curled against Shin's chest.

* * *

**Present**

Hiruma folded his arms across his chest and leaned back.

"I'll tell you what I know."

* * *

**11:58 pm**

It was raining. Of course it was raining. Agon rolled his eyes as he walked along the side of the schoolyard.

It wouldn't be the first time he was caught in the rain but he hadn't excepted rain like this tonight. Now the loaded leather wallet he'd relieved some pompous European loudmouth of half an hour ago would be soaked through.

Yeah, it was that kind of rain. Loud enough to drown out most every other sound in the night except the occasional car casting small waves off onto the sidewalks. Heavy enough to make you feel like you weren't wearing skin or muscles at all, somehow, it got all the way down into your bones, into the joints and crevices of the very innermost parts of you, made you feel as though you might as well be totally submerged. Thick enough to make you walk nice and slow through it all because running was useless unless you wanted to end up face-down or ass-first in a puddle the size of a small lake. Coming down consistently enough to make you wonder if would ever stop, made you wonder if any other kind of rain was really rain at all or just a moment of intense humidity, made you really think.

Agon snorted water and trudged on.

Was he really above water? Or was he submerged?_ If I didn't know better I'd say I was fucking dreaming this shit up_, Agon thought to himself, _it's coming down so hard for so long._ He couldn't remember when a light sprinkle had turned from a shower into this tumultuous downpour. Was it really just ten minutes ago?_ Feels like thirty. _

But thirty minutes back he was in a dry alleyway, smirking down at a wallet-less blonde with a bloody nose and a busted lip. He remembered the man's eyes gazing up on past him and at the skies because it had pissed him off and earned the quivering foreigner another kick to the side. He remembered well because the foreign man had the nerve to shout at his back, _'I hope you drown in the rain, street trash!' _

Agon clearly remembered being dry before he kicked the man clear out of the alley and into oncoming traffic.

_'Pity he didn't get hit by a car,_' Agon thought, '_And pity I've got his wallet. It'll be a bitch trying to get any hospital to take care of his face without his ID.' _

No, he'd been plenty dry thirty minutes back. Agon decided the time didn't really fucking matter as he stopped under a tree to relieve his eyes for a moment of the trying task of attempting to see through the curtains of water coming down. He was ringing a corner of his jacket dry before he realized he wasn't the only one taking advantage under the tree.

Agon also realized that legs aren't supposed to bend sharply at the shin.

The sound of the rain bled out of existence. The sensation of creeping horror and realization, kind of like the moments on the American Football field where time would stretch itself out within a single instant to span what felt like minutes, set into the air under the tree's broad canopy. Agon felt his breathing slow. Or stop. Or something. The world crinkled around him and cracked, the instant he was occupying breaking off from the rest of the world for just that moment, and at the same time suspended in a stand-still. Nothing seemed to move. Not the rain, not his chest, nor the chest of the boy on the grass under the tree.

There was something about the look of so much blood against the grass which instinctively gripped at Agon's chest, made some deep buried part of him cringe inwardly at the sight of it, despite the amount of blood he'd personally put on the alley's brick walls.

They really weren't mean to bend so sharply actually.

Agon swallowed tightly. And everything came crashing back into motion.

The thick canopy above was really only partially useful at keeping the both of them dry and so the blood was coursing through the grass and he'd stepped into a patch of red-green when he'd taken shelter under the tree. The boy's slender figure was still caught in that single moment, still and unmoving, for all the world asleep or dead.

He didn't want to think about why the second one made a hiccup of fury climb up his throat.

The dreaded teen reached down and swiped the blood off his shoes with his palm, reached out and checked the boy's pulse with his other hand. His face darkened when he discovered more sticky red, suggesting the wounds were old.

_'This is passing out from blood loss,'_ Agon realized suddenly,_ 'He's got to get to a hos-_'

Kongou Agon wasn't famous for nothing.

He was well-known throughout the football world and even somewhat beyond that for his god-like intuition, the ability unique to him alone to interpret the movements of others and to coordinate his reactions appropriately. That, coupled with his strength and agility, made him one of the most formidable American Football players to date in Japan.

Even this formidable man could do nothing against the speed at which he was tackled.

The clarity was incredible. Because of his ability he could tell, in agonizing slow-motion, how the bones snapped under the direct force, one by one.

Even as he was thrown from the ground he knew some of his ribs were broken.

There was only one person in the world, or in this part of the world, with this kind of strength and precision. He instinctively knew that he'd been crippled by the first blow but that he might actually die if he didn't fight back, especially with that look in the other man's eyes-

Agon's own eyes widened. He'd accounted for strength but not for speed. This man was-

Even though everything he predicted happened as he knew it would he couldn't stop the scream Shin's second punch produced.

* * *

**Present**

"Kongou's here too?"

"Shin broke three of his ribs and laid him out cold."

Musashi looked troubled at the revelation. "But why? Shin's not that kind of-"

"He's not," Hiruma agreed. "But he wasn't the only one to jump to conclusions."

* * *

**11:26 pm**

The world was white and then it was black again. Things had blurred outlines and the smell of blood clung to the corner of his senses. Everything washed in and out of focus like the tide pulling in and out from the sea. It was really hard to focus.

Something wet rolled down his cheek and Sena thought he might be crying.

Thunder rippled across the silence and then it began to come down in ernest.

'_Oh_,' he thought. '_Rain_.'

Sena blinked his eyes open under the thick canopy of leaves of a tree. When had he come to be...

In the middle of his third coherent thought, feeling came back to his legs, and agony ripped a fresh cry from his throat.

The rain came down harder and muffled everything.

* * *

**Present**

"Did the doctors say how it broke?"

"Repeated blunt force trauma."

Hiruma's tone was clipped.

"From what?"

"From a-"

* * *

**3:50 pm**

School was over for the day. Most of the students had gone home by now but Sena had stayed behind so he could walk home with Suzuna, who'd gone to find her phone. She said she'd been looking for it for a while and he had been helping by looking around school. Between the two of them they covered most of the school in about thirty minutes with no luck. They'd split up one last time to try covering different unchecked rooms on opposite ends of the school. Sena had been trying to get on top of a cupboard when he received a text from her phone.

'_Whew! Thank goodness she found it,'_ the runner thought as he let himself down from the school furniture, _'Better go meet her in front of the school.' _

He was on the first floor headed to the doors when a voice called out from behind him.

"Hey, look out!"

CRACK.

Sena's world exploded into fire. As he fell to the floor his ears roared as pain ripped up from his shin, obscuring the voices muttering and sneering from behind him.

"Ooh, shiiiiit!"

"Man, that sounded _sick_."

"Look at... woah, that looks like it'll leave a wicked bruise."

Sena's eyes, previously clenched shut from pain, opened to look. Fingers closed around his eyes.

"Hell, he'll see us," someone was saying as a different pair of hands wrapped around his ankle and yanked it toward the ceiling. Yet another hand covered his mouth but didn't manage to completely muffle his cry of pain. There were more things being said but the smaller boy couldn't concentrate. It felt as though he'd kicked a door frame with the wrong part of his leg. Someone was laughing. Someone else was holding him down and covering his eyes and mouth, and there had to be one other person who was holding him up by the-

CRACK!

Sena's body convulsed.

CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.

There was a sickening snap as something solid finally gave way. The next few voices didn't register as his mind blanked with white hot pain. The hands on his eyes and mouth slid away and Sena's head fell to the floor with a dull thud.

"_Holy shit, _you **retard**! Are you trying to fucking kill him? Chill out!"

The hands around his ankle had let go around the same time.

"Damn, dude, I know you said you were pissed but this is-"

"You could kill him! You could seriously kill him!"

No one was laughing anymore.

"Will both of you shut the hell up?" A kick to the head and Sena tasted blood. There were more cries of protest and the sound of footsteps as the offender was dragged away before he could kick again. "This pipsqueak got picked for the fucking American Team because of his legs right? You were just as pissed as I was!"

There were words somewhere but Sena only knew one word at the moment. Pain.

"Aw. Man. You guys, he's bleeding."

"Yeah?" More footsteps. "Sick. D'you think it'll leave a stain on the floor?"

"C'mon, let's get out of here." One set of footsteps was headed away.

"Shit. Are we just gonna leave him? What if someone sees?" Another joined the first.

"That's why we're legging it, now GO!"

And then he was alone.

Sena couldn't remember much of the window from then until he was outside the school. He remembered briefly that he'd forced himself to look at his leg and had nearly vomited. Some part of him was aware that he was bleeding, slowly but steadily, and that he needed to get to a hospital. He needed to get to a hospital. He needed to get at least outside.

He made it under a tree before his arms failed him and faded from consciousness in a patch of soft grass.

* * *

**Present**

Hiruma steepled long fingers as Musashi sighed for the fourth time in ten minutes. At least it wasn't loud enough to wake the bed's other occupant but it was the only other sound in the room.

"If you've got somewhere to be then get out."

"I'm not in a hurry."

Barely three minutes passed before the kicker broke the silence again.

"Do you know who did it?"

Hiruma's ear twitched; a sign of tightly concealed irritation. Of course that had been the topic of several hour's musings. But-

_He's been in too much pain to talk about anything. _

_He's been drugged up to his eyeballs. _

_He can't form a coherent sentence yet. _

The blonde chose something diplomatic and to the point.

"He's been unconscious."

"The doctors said he'd be in for a rough first week," Musashi recalled, "How'd he do for day one?"

Hiruma didn't answer that.

"Sorry," the kicker repented as he remembered Hiruma's previous statement. "He's a tough kid, though, he'll be fine. The recovery time for something like this isn't that bad, from what I remember," Musashi continued, "I think he'll be okay for..."

The tide of Musashi's words swept back as his Captain reached long fingers over the edge of the bed to find the smaller boy's hand and covered it.

Musashi stood to go.

"...you'll let us know if anything changes?" he asked from the doorway. Hiruma nodded.

Visiting hours came and went.

* * *

**2:48 am**

Narrowed eyes regarded the sleeping figure cooly and issued orders.

"You _will_ get better."

The figure on the bed shuddered in sleep, as if to agree to the straightforward demand.

"We are still going to the Championship."

It was as though he were casting a spell by simply saying things which were to be.

"And we are going to **win**."

Hiruma's fingers brushed the underside of Sena's chin gently.

"But first," he said as he turned to leave, "there are people who need to _disappear_."

* * *

**End Chapter 12**

**End A/N: **Sorry for the long waits between chapters. This is the hard left turn I mentioned a while back. Thank you for all the reviews.


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